Mutual Disaffection Pandora's Box
by CSI Dork
Summary: The new girl in the lab hates Greg and Greg hates the new girl in the lab.Will they ever get along? Complete. HumourAngst. Rating for language and implied violence.
1. First Impressions

_A/N - hey there fellow CSI fic reading/writing people and welcome to my first ever CSI fan fic. It is complete because I wrote it for my own amusement and then decided to post it on here in case anyone else was interested :). I realise this probably isn't a very original idea and is no where near as good as some of the fic's on here but please read and enjoy (hopefully) anyway. I may add author's notes to the other chapters later._

_P.S - as usual, I only own the characterI created for this story. I didn't create CSI or anyone to do with it (i'm not that clever!)_

**Chapter One – First Impressions**

She walked into the building, straight up to the reception desk and announced herself. The woman behind the desk nearly fell off her chair, her approach had been silent and the woman had been reading a magazine so hadn't seen her coming. After recovering from the shock, the receptionist directed her down the corridor where there was an office at the end. Thanking the receptionist, she walked confidently down the corridor towards the aforementioned office, passing rooms that looked all too familiar despite never having been in the building before.

When she reached the office, the occupant was sat in a chair with his back to her, examining something. He held it up to the light and she could see that it was a cockroach in a jar.

'Ah, the Periplaneta Americana' she said, which gained the attention of the man in the chair.

He spun around and looked at her, wearing a mixed expression of curiosity and wonderment, probably both wondering who she was and how she knew the scientific name for the insect.

'Mr Grissom, I presume?' she said, with a small smile.

That got his attention even more; he raised an eyebrow and placed the specimen jar on the desk. She offered her hand, which he shook, and introduced herself.

'Harriet Charles, your reputation precedes you,' she explained by way of knowing who he was without a formal introduction 'That and your name is on the desk.'

'Very observant,' he said, wryly. 'Good to finally meet you, I've heard a lot about you.'

'All good I hope,' replied Harriet.

Grissom nodded his head slightly in reply 'Please, take a seat'

'Thank you,' she said and sat down in the chair opposite him.

'Evening Greg!' Grissom suddenly called out.

Harriet turned and saw a younger man stop in the middle of the corridor at hearing his name; he had clearly been trying to get as far away from the office as quickly as possible. He turned around and smiled warily like a child preparing to get a telling off.

'Hi boss,' he said, unenthusiastically.

'What time does shift start?' Grissom called to him, with a hint of sarcasm.

'Yeah I know ten minutes ago, sorry boss, my car wouldn't start,' he said, with hope, probably for his excuse to be accepted.

'You do realise I'm not late don't you?' Harriet said, quickly 'I was on a plane until a half hour ago'

'Yes, your supervisor did inform me that you would be arriving late, a far more concrete excuse than our Mr Sanders over there,' he said, with a wave of his hand to indicate that he had finished tormenting the man.

Greg turned and hastily carried on down the corridor.

Harriet turned back to face Grissom again. He had a small smile etched on his face, which could only be a good thing she hoped although she didn't know having never worked with the man before.

'So, how do you know so much about our little friend here?' he asked, tapping on the top of the cockroach jar, making the insect move.

'It's more of a hobby which I tried extremely hard to inflict on everyone I knew at university. Needless to say, the entomology society I set up only had five members including myself but we had a lot of fun,' Harriet explained.

Grissom looked impressed. He took the jar with the cockroach and put it on one of the shelves behind him.

'Interesting,' he said, standing up 'I think it's about time I introduced you to the rest of the team'

Harriet stood and allowed him to leave the office first so that he could lead her to their destination.

They walked down the corridor and she could hear some voices talking loudly and the smell of coffee as they approached what looked like a staff room. Grissom stopped at the open door; no one seemed to have noticed that he was there. I'm not the only one who walks quietly, she thought.

'So what excuse did you give him, Greggo?' a man with a southern American accent asked.

'I told the truth,' came Greg's playful reply 'My car wouldn't start'

'Yeah right,' laughed the man 'How many times did you use that excuse in college Warrick?'

'More than I can remember Nicky my friend,' came the reply.

'Give me a break!' Greg said 'She was hot.'

'And Grissom didn't break your neck?' asked a woman with shoulder length brown hair.

'Nah, he was too busy talking to the new girl.'

'Oh what's she like?' the first man asked, interested 'She hot too?'

'Nah, not my kind of girl,' Greg said 'Think she might be Hodges type though with all the brown nosing she was doing. Mr Grissom your reputation precedes you' he mimicked.

Greg laughed and turned away from the coffee pot where he had been standing and stopped dead as he saw that Grissom and Harriet were in the doorway.

'Thank you for that wonderful display of maturity Greg,' Grissom said, walking into the room.

Harriet tried to ignore what the young CSI had said and followed Grissom into the room. She saw another woman, older, with fair hair that was sitting on a sofa reading something.

'Everyone, this is Harriet Charles, she's going to be our new DNA specialist whilst Mia is on her sabbatical,' Grissom introduced her. 'Harriet, you've already met Greg, an experience I'm sure you'll want to forget soon. This is Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Sara Sidle and Catherine Willows.'

He indicated each of the CSI's and she shook hands with them, maintaining her professionalism whilst ignoring Greg at the same time. What an ass, she thought; he's just standing there nursing his coffee cup, what a dork!

'You brought a lot of stuff with you,' said Sara, indicating the suitcase, holdall and laptop bag that Harriet was holding.

'Oh yeah, I came straight from the airport,' she explained.

'You flew all the way from England?' Greg asked, finally speaking.

'No, I swam to New York and then got a flight down here,' Harriet said seriously, trying to suppress a smile at being able to humiliate him back.

'I meant, you flew all the way here and then came straight to work?' he said quickly, defending himself.

'Yeah, so?' Harriet said.

'Nothing,' Greg said hastily and returned to nursing his coffee

'You can stash your stuff in the locker room, no problem,' Sara said, smiling at Harriet, appearing to be amused by the verbal war that Greg had just lost.

'Thanks, but I think I'll keep my laptop with me,' Harriet said ' I have a computerised entomological database I...'

'Really?' Grissom interrupted, looking very interested.

'Yeah, I know you have a lot of stuff in your office already, probably more than I have on the database but you never know you might find it comes in useful. There are lots of British varieties on it. You can have a look at it sometime if you like'

'Well thank you Harriet I'll hold you to that,' Grissom smiled and turned to the team.

Harriet looked back at the other CSI's in time to see Greg grinning at Nick whilst tapping his finger on the end of his nose, referring to his brown nosing comment a couple of minutes earlier. What an asshole!

* * *

_A/N - Thankyou for reading the first chapter of my story. Hope you liked it. If you did there are twenty eight more where that came from (i know i got carried away!)_

_If i got the latin name of the cockraoch wrong, don't sue me. I asked jeeves and he told me that was right so blame him._


	2. If Looks Could Kill

_A/N - how cool. You are now reading chapter two. I guess that means I didn't bore you silly with the first one. Yay! Just wanted to add that if I use any expressions that anyone doesn't understand please let me know and I will try to explain what I mean. I'm not sure if I have used any that are only used in England so sorry about that! _

_Usual disclaimer applies as for the first chapter and will for the rest of them. _

* * *

**Chapter Two – If Looks Could Kill**

Harriet sighed contentedly as she sat waiting for the results of a DNA sample to print out. It had been a long time since she had done this job but she had always enjoyed it. She was learning that things were slightly different here in the US of A but not so much that she couldn't handle.

It had been a couple of hours since she first started in the lab and luckily for her, it was a fairly quiet night. Nick Stokes had dropped off the sample, an hour in, after visiting a crime scene. The rest of the group she assumed were still out on their various assignments. She hadn't seen Greg since meeting everyone in the staff room earlier and she was glad, what was his problem? She hated it when people made judgements about her before they even knew her.

Harriet shook her head to herself and looked around the lab. Perhaps while it was quiet, she ought to get more acquainted. She decided to go through and see how the freezer was organised to make sure she kept it consistent which took her all of five minutes and then she was bored again, swinging around on her chair. Checking all the equipment she needed was clean and present also took her another five minutes. God, this night was dragging already. Harriet decided to reorganize a little so she could fit her laptop on the counter next to the equipment. Grissom hadn't been seen since he showed her to the DNA lab, either, but she guessed that as he was the supervisor he probably wasn't seen around very often. She was a little glad about that, she wasn't sure her home made database would be very impressive to a man who probably had more knowledge in his head.

She flipped open the laptop and turned it on. While she waited for it to load up, she took the results from the printer and read them. Sample was a male, low iron count, indicative of anaemia, nothing too specific. She signed off the results and put them on the counter for safekeeping and turned back to her laptop when she spotted a stereo in the corner of the lab. It looked like it had been put on the floor out of the way, possibly by the previous DNA tech, Mia, who she understood was on a year's sabbatical to do some research at WLVU.

'Well, I could do with a bit of noise in here,' Harriet said, as if she was talking to the stereo. 'It's like working in the morgue.'

She got off her chair and picked up the stereo, trying carefully not to spill the dust that had settled on it. Placing it on an empty shelf in the back of the lab, she realised she didn't have any music to play on it, her CD's being in her suitcase in the locker room. Seeing as the lab was so quiet she quickly wandered down to the locker room, found a CD and collected some paper towels on the way out to clean the dust off the stereo.

'There you are,' said a voice as she walked back to the lab.

She looked up from reading the back of the CD case to see Greg standing in the doorway of the lab. Great, she thought, all I need, a chat with CSI I'm-so-funny Sanders.

'Mr Sanders, what can I do for you?' she asked, coldly, pushing past him and sitting in her chair.

'Well, if you're offering...' he stopped and grinned cheekily.

'You know what I mean,' Harriet almost snapped.

Greg looked taken aback for a second and then, as if remembering what he was doing, he placed a pile of evidence bags on the counter.

'I need these analysing and comparing to these,' he said, placing a rack of samples next to the evidence bags. 'As quick as you can'

'No problem,' Harriet said, slipping the CD into the stereo which she had cleaned as she was listening to him.

'Really?' Greg looked slightly surprised 'There's like thirty samples there you know?'

'Is that supposed to concern me?' Harriet asked, not really wanting an answer.

'I uh…'

'It was a rhetorical question,'

'Oh Okay,' he stood for a minute looking like he didn't know what to do next.

'Are you just going to stand there and watch me?' Harriet asked 'don't you have something else to busy yourself with? A comic book to read or something?'

Greg raised his eyebrows and glared at her. Harriet could sense that they were not going to get on but not wanting to be the next homicide victim in Las Vegas she decided against goading him further, hit play on the stereo and cranked up the volume. Taking that as his cue, Greg walked out of the lab without another word.

* * *

_A/N - please don't hate Harriet for being mean to Greggo. He will get his own back soon don't you worry! _


	3. Mutual Disaffection

_A/N - just wanted to add (again) that I do not know very much about the procedures used in CSI. I love the programme and watch it a lot butI haven't seen every episode and so I don't know how long it would take for them to analyse DNA or whatever so please just humour me on that one. Thank you for getting to chapter three. Also, lines usually indicate a change in point of view between characters. _

**Chapter Three – Mutual Disaffection. **

Greg trudged down to the audiovisual room in a dark mood. He couldn't figure this new girl out. What the hell had he done to her to deserve the cold shoulder? Stupid stuck up British woman! He'd known her five minutes and already he was thinking it would be more productive to go and chat to one of the corpses in Dr Robbins office.

Still mulling this over, he turned absentmindedly to go into the audiovisual room and misjudged the doorway. Before he knew it, he bounced off the frame by the elbow, tripped over his own foot and somehow ended up sitting on his butt.

There was a loud laugh from inside the room and Greg looked up to see Warrick sitting at the computer in hysterics. He figured he must have looked incredibly silly as he fell because Warrick was not a particularly loud man and to have put him into a state of uncontrollable laughter was something of an achievement.

'Hey Greg, nice of you to drop in,' was Warrick's greeting as he managed to calm himself.

'That's original, man, thanks,' Greg said, getting up off the floor.

Warrick shook his head, smiling and turned back to the computer. Greg walked up behind him to look at what he was doing. On the screen, he had the surveillance footage from the nightclub they had just returned from processing. Warrick typed something on the keyboard and moved the time frame on.

'So, dude, what were you so busy thinking about that you couldn't walk through the door properly?' he asked Greg, smiling again.

'The new lab girl,' Greg replied, looking at the video, which so far only showed revellers dancing, drinking and making out.

'I though you said you didn't like her?' Warrick said, puzzled.

'I don't that's the point. I just went to drop off the evidence for analysis and she was unwelcoming to say the least,' said Greg.

'Maybe she heard what you said earlier about her sucking up to Grissom,' Warrick suggested.

'Yeah, but that was only a joke, I was nice enough to her when I went down to the lab and she just completely disregarded any attempt I might have been making to get to know her.'

'Oh well, you can't win 'em all Greggo.'

'Yeah I know but there's nothing wrong with having a sense of humour.'

Warrick smiled and something caught his eye on the videotape. A man was hanging around near where their victim had been found and then disappeared into the men's toilet.

'Hey check this out,' he said to Greg.

He reversed the footage and stopped it on the man and began to enlarge it.

'Who's that? I don't remember seeing him anywhere in the club,' Greg said.

'It's not very clear,' Warrick said and did some more typing and clicking.

Greg pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. The two began working on the footage, looking for the man in the video to see if he had been anywhere else in the club that night. There was a lot of footage and they had been working for a couple of hours with little luck when Harriet came down with some results for them.

* * *

Harriet collected up the print outs from the samples she had managed to clear so far. She was only halfway through them but considering the amount she started with, she had worked quite quickly. She was just leaving the lab to go find Greg when she bumped into Nick on his way to see her.

'Hey Harriet, how's your first day going?' he asked.

'Not bad, here's the results on the sample you gave me,' she handed him a piece of paper.

'Thanks, that's great. Where you heading now, for a break?' he asked.

'Nah, I'm looking for your comedian friend,' Harriet smiled.

Nick looked confused 'Who?'

'Greg Sanders.'

'Oh yeah,' Nick laughed a little. 'He's down there in audiovisual with Warrick.'

'Thanks Nick see you later,' Harriet started to walk towards where he had pointed.

'Wait a minute, the sample was from an anaemic?' Nick asked.

'Yeah, so?' Harriet replied.

'I thought you were just supposed to analyse the DNA, Dr Robbins usually sends blood down to toxicology to test for things like that,' Nick said.

'Oh well, I did it anyway I always do, I test for everything. It's a habit; I've always been a bit of a perfectionist. It's probably no help to you but if you happen to have a suspect who looks pale and tired it might be useful.'

'Yeah, OK, see you later.'

Nick looked a bit bemused at her. She just grinned and carried on down to where Warrick and Greg were working. She found them looking at a television screen with what looked like CCTV footage on it.

'Hey I've got some results for you,' she said.

Warrick and Greg both looked round at her.

'Already?' Greg asked in disbelief.

'Man, we've been sat here like two hours,' Warrick said, looking at his watch.

'Yeah but still, there were like 30 swabs,' Greg pointed out.

'Do you want the results or not?' Harriet snapped, suddenly.

'Sure go ahead,' Warrick said.

'OK, I've only gotten through half the samples so far but the blood you found on the door handle does not belong to your victim.' Harriet said.

'You did fifteen swabs in two hours?' Greg said, again with disbelief in his voice.

Harriet looked at him sternly.

'I do know how to do this job, I have done it before you know,' she said.

'Yeah but still when I worked in DNA I was fast, but that's ridiculous. You sure you crosschecked everything?' he asked.

Harriet sighed and turned to Warrick.

'There was no match to any of the samples you collected from the staff at the club. I still have to run the saliva and semen samples you found but I'll come find you as soon as I've got them,' she said.

'OK, thanks Harriet and good work,' Warrick replied.

Harriet completely ignored Greg and walked back to the lab. How dare he question her work? She worked quickly; she always had done back at the lab in England. He obviously couldn't handle that someone might actually be able to do something better than he did.

'Are you sure you checked everything,' she scoffed aloud to herself as she sat back down at the microscope. 'Really, what an asshole.'

Her CD had finished so she pressed play again and turned it up, not wanting anyone to disturb her unless absolutely necessary.

* * *

'Greg, take that look off your face,' Warrick said, printing out some still images of the man in the club.

Greg was sitting with a stony expression on his face.

'There must be some mistake, no match to anyone from the club? We took samples from everyone who was there. There's no way anyone can analyse samples that quickly,' he moaned.

'Oh come on man get over it,' said Warrick 'besides, it could belong to this guy, you said yourself, you didn't remember seeing him.'

'Whatever,' Greg said, sulking and throwing the folder of DNA results onto the counter.

There's just no way, he told himself. First she makes him look like an idiot in the break room and now she thinks she's a lab tech with superpowers. This new girl was not making a good impression on him at all. Even if she started wearing her pants over her trousers he wouldn't change his mind.

* * *

_A/N - another note here, sorry I talk for Britain don't I? Anyway please humour me if you think the characterisation is a little off as well. I have tried to write them as I have interpreted them from watching T.V but no doubt there will be some differences in opinion in that one. You can tell this is my first fic, I'm apologising for everything that might possibly be wrong! O.k, I'm going now. Onto chapter four if you feel that way inclined :)_


	4. Home Sweet Home

**Chapter Four – Home Sweet Home. **

Grissom pulled into the parking lot outside the crime lab; he had a headache from lack of sleep and was feeling tense from last nights shift. The evidence he collected at the crime scene was enough to prove that two suspects were present but neither would admit to the crime and both had explanations that would tally with the evidence. Despite returning to the scene and collecting some more traces of evidence, and the amazing work the new DNA tech had done, he still hadn't been able to prove anything to convict either suspect. All he was looking forward to now was getting a strong cup of coffee to wake him up before reviewing the case from yesterday in the hope that he might find something.

As he walked towards his office he saw a familiar figure approaching him, obviously on his way out after finishing the day shift.

Great, this is all I need, he thought, as the person got closer. A run in with Conrad Ecklie. There's nothing I like better than swapping insults when I've got more important things to do.

'Hey Gil,' Ecklie said with a sly grin that could only mean some form of criticism was going to follow 'You working your staff too hard?'

'My staff are all hard working, Conrad, I don't need to work them,' he shot back.

'Well there's a difference between working hard and moving into the lab. Sort out your new DNA tech, she's making the place look untidy.'

'Harriet?' Grissom enquired.

'We left her alone for today but it can't happen again,' Ecklie stated sternly.

'What?' Grissom asked, impatient and confused.

'Break room,' Ecklie jerked his head in that direction and then continued on his way out.

Grissom pulled a face, none the wiser, made his way to the break room and found Harriet curled up on the sofa snoring very loudly.

* * *

'You stupid boy!' Harriet shouted, looking at the mess on the floor of her lab. 'It's taken me ages to get those samples sorted.'

Greg laughed 'oh well, you're a whiz kid you can get everything done in double the time I can, what's the problem?'

'The problem is,' Harriet screamed 'that you've just knocked all the evidence on the floor and I am going to have to go back to the crime scene and retake all those swabs.'

'Oh dear, what a shame, have fun,' Greg taunted 'Try not to get your nose brown whilst you're at it'

He turned to leave the lab. Harriet picked up the microscope nearest to her and threw it at him. It struck him on the head and he fell to the floor, a pool of blood flowing around him. Harriet let out a blood-curdling scream.

'Harriet? Harriet?'

She yelped and her eyes shot open. Oh, thank god, she thought, it was just a dream. As much as shutting up Sanders is an appealing idea, murder wasn't her thing. She looked at the person who had woken her. It was Grissom and he looked very puzzled.

'Did you sleep here all day?' he asked.

Harriet sat up and yawned.

'What time is it?' she asked.

'It's nearly seven,' he replied.

'Well then that's a yes,' she stifled another yawn and got up, walking over to the coffee machine.

Grissom looked at her in disbelief 'why?' he asked her.

'Oh sorry,' Harriet said realising she hadn't explained. 'I got a phone call last night that I lost my apartment, didn't even get to move in so I had nowhere else to stay and I guess I just fell asleep on the sofa.'

She poured some coffee into a mug and was about to put the jug back when Greg walked in, alive and well without any microscope injuries. He looked at her and his eyes widened in horror.

'That's my coffee!' he said loudly.

Harriet felt her stomach sink. Great, I'm barely awake and already this guy is starting on me.

'I'm sorry,' she said 'I didn't see your name on it.'

'Very funny,' Greg said, pulling a face.

He reached for the pot but Harriet backed away, poured some more into her cup, took a large gulp from it and looked at him.

'Greg, it's just coffee,' she said, seeing the look of horror on his face.

'Yeah, it's just coffee,' Nick said, walking into the break room, followed by the others.

Harriet offered Nick the pot and he took a cup from the cupboard and held it out for her to fill. The rest of the group followed suit until there was only a cupful left in the bottom of the jug. Harriet turned to their supervisor.

'Grissom you want some?' she asked.

Grissom looked like he was trying to suppress a smile.

'Yes, thank you Harriet,' he replied.

She poured him a cup and put the pot back on the worktop. Handing Grissom his cup, she sat down on one of the chairs and took another drink of her coffee.

'Mmmmm,' she said, eyeing Greg and swinging around arrogantly on the chair.

Greg looked like he was trying not to care about his precious coffee. Harriet grinned to herself and swung around to speak to the others. This is brilliant, she thought, he's lost for words. She leaned back into the chair and screamed as the back fell off and she landed on the floor with a thud, giving herself a caffeine shower.

'Oh yeah,' Greg said 'I forgot to mention, that chair is broken,'

'Are you all right?' Nick asked offering her a hand and pulling her up.

'Yes thanks. I'm going to get changed,' Harriet said, wiping coffee from her face.

She stood up and walked past Greg with her head held high as he held his fist against his mouth and tried not to laugh which made him go red in the face. As she left the break room, she heard him give in and laugh hysterically until Grissom told him to shut up and sit down. She made her way to the locker room and changed into some clean clothes before heading over to the lab.

* * *

'Seriously Greg, stop laughing,' Warrick said

'Yeah you're getting on my nerves,' Nick added.

Greg had managed to remain quiet long enough for Grissom to hand out the assignments for the evening but couldn't hold it in any longer and erupted into high pitched squeaks as he tried desperately to stifle them.

'You sound like a mouse,' Sara said.

'Anyone got anything else they would like to add before we get to work?' Grissom asked, giving Greg a stony look.

'Yeah, I have,' Greg said, in between squeaks. 'I need a day off.'

'Ooh can we send him home now?' Catherine asked 'Because if he's going to squeak like that all shift I can't work with him.'

Greg looked enthusiastic about that idea.

'No he can't,' Grissom said. 'You can book a day off like everyone else'

'But I haven't got any days coming for another three weeks and I need to find a new apartment ASAP,' Greg pleaded.

'What's wrong with the one you have?' Nick asked.

'I can't afford it. The pay cut I took is starting to make itself known, not that I'm complaining, I just don't wanna end up homeless,' he explained.

'Unless someone forfeits their day off I'm afraid I can't help you until you're due your holiday days, Greg,' Grissom explained.

Greg looked around the room hopefully at his colleagues. They all avoided his eyes. Catherine took a sudden interest in a notice on the board, Nick picked a piece of fluff off Sara's shoulder as she slapped him on the hand for touching her while Warrick seemed to have seen something interesting on the ceiling.

'We really should get that repainted,' he said.

Everyone looked up simultaneously and mumbled in agreement as Greg rolled his eyes and sighed.

* * *

Later that evening…

Harriet was busy analysing a blood sample, this time deciding to look at the DNA and the DNA only, she didn't want the nose of the tech in the tox lab getting out of joint. Besides tonight was a busy night and matching samples to the evidence was taking priority over screening for everything else as she often did – it was almost an obsessive compulsive streak she had.

'I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies…' she sang along with her CD as the printout from the last sample she had run came through. She glanced at it for a second and then dashed off down the corridor in search of Nick.

On her way she bumped into Grissom, knocking the box he was carrying onto the floor, losing her footing and falling over for the second time that day.

'Careful!' Grissom snapped.

'I'm sorry Grissom, I didn't see you,' she apologised and stood up again.

She felt a tickling sensation on her leg and looked down to see a tarantula trying to climb up her trouser leg, apparently the inhabitant of the box. She knelt down and picked it up confidently.

'Hey there little guy,' she said

She looked up at Grissom and smiled 'He's cute'

'Were you going somewhere?' he asked.

'Oh yeah, taking DNA results to Nick,' she replied.

'Ok, I'm going to put him in your lab, I want you to look for any hairs or fibres that don't belong to him,' Grissom instructed.

'Who? Nick?' Harriet asked.

'No him,' Grissom pointed to the tarantula that was trying to climb up her arm. He took it from her and placed it back in the box.

'Ohhh,' Harriet laughed, feeling stupid. 'Is he a suspect.'?

'No but he could be a witness.' Grissom said, with a half smile.

'You're serious aren't you?' she asked.

Grissom nodded and handed her the DNA results she had dropped. She smiled in thanks and headed back up the corridor.

'Oh and I think I might have a solution to your housing problem,' he called after her. 'I'll explain later.'

'OK,' she called back, not turning around.

She found Nick in the layout room with Greg who looked up when she came in and then looked straight back at the trash he was searching through so she acknowledged Nick instead.

'Hey Nick, here's the results. The blood you found wasn't a match to the victim but in fact the victims father.' She announced.

'That's great; we've been trying to place him at the scene. He's got motive but denies even being there.' Nick replied.

'Glad to be of help,' Harriet smiled.

'I guess that means I don't need to search through this anymore,' Greg said putting a hand in front of his nose to block the stench.

'Well, really, you should still check the trash there might be more evidence that places your suspect at the scene. The more evidence you have the stronger case you'll have in court,' Harriet stated, instinctively.

'And how would you know that?' Greg asked, bitterly. 'You're a lab tech not a CSI.'

Harriet froze. She hadn't intended on saying anything about her work back home, it was something she was trying to leave behind. Luckily for her, Nick spoke up.

'Greg she's right, don't be such an ass. Besides you were a lab tech once.'

'Thanks Nick, I'll see you later I've got a tarantula to examine,' she said and clapped her hands like a child who had just been given the best Christmas present ever.'

Greg shuddered 'Eww, give me a trash can any day.'

'Aww he's adorable, you should come and see it,' she said, enthusiastically, forgetting for a second that she didn't like him.

'I think I'll pass on that,' was the reply.

Harriet looked at Nick and rolled her eyes. He smiled and thanked her again for the results. She left them and headed quickly back to the DNA lab in time to find the spider trying to escape.

'Whoa there little buddy,' she said, scooping him up carefully and putting him back in the box. 'Flippin' heck, two days around Americans and I'm already starting to talk like one,' she told the spider, not that he was listening.

'You find anything?' Grissom asked when he walked into the lab twenty minutes later.

Harriet looked up from the spider that she was cradling in one hand whilst she wrote something with the other.

'Yeah as you probably know, tarantulas are covered in hairs but I doubt even the rarest breed of tarantula could shed a hair this colour,' she said, indicating the microscope 'It must have got caught up on his leg.'

Grissom took a look into the microscope and saw a blonde hair.

'Human?' he enquired.

'Yes, I'm running a comparison with your suspect as we speak.'

'Is the spider keeping you company?' Grissom asked, looking at the way she was keeping it with her whilst working.

Harriet smiled 'I love these creatures, they're fascinating and this one is just so gorgeous, look at his colouring, its beautiful.'

'Well be careful with him because he's evidence.'

Harriet looked up suddenly, a thought crossing her mind.

'What's going to happen to him?' she asked, concerned.

'Don't worry, once the case is over I'll find somewhere for him.'

'OK, as long as you're not going to kill him or anything.'

'You should, it's disgusting,' said a voice.

Greg was standing in the doorway, keeping his distance.

'You're disgusting shall we kill you?' Harriet spat back.

'Grissom, you wanted to see me?' Greg asked, ignoring her comment.

Grissom looked from Harriet to Greg and back again as if debating whether he should speak or not.

'Yeah, I was wondering if having a room mate might solve your problem?' he asked.

'It'd split the rent in half so yeah I guess it would.' Greg said.

'OK Greg meet your new room mate,' Grissom said, indicating Harriet 'She doesn't have anywhere to live at the moment so she's coming to move in with you.'

Grissom quickly exited the lab and headed down the corridor.

The response from both Harriet and Greg was simultaneous and the disapproval in their voices was mutual.

'What?'

* * *

_A/N - I'm sorry, you totally saw that coming didn't you?_


	5. Sleeping With The Enemy

_A/N - I know I said earlier that lines normally indicate a change in point of view. They also indicate a passage in time as well although that was probably obvious I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you and enjoy he chapter! _

**Chapter Five – Sleeping with the enemy.**

'Grissom, you've got to be kidding me,' Greg said, bursting into the break room followed by Harriet who was still holding the tarantula.

Grissom looked up from where he was filling his cup with coffee. Nick, Warrick, Sarah and Catherine were all sat at the table having their lunch (although at three in the morning, one couldn't be sure what meal it would be defined as). They all looked up at Greg and Harriet who suddenly felt self conscious about this outburst she was involved in. She didn't like being unprofessional especially when she had only been working there a day and a half but this was madness.

'I kid you not, Greg.' Grissom replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

'Mr Grissom, I really appreciate you trying to help…' Harriet started, trying to think of a more professional reason for not wanting to house share with Greg other than she thought he was an idiot.

'I don't see what the problem is, you're looking for somewhere to live and Greg needs a room mate, problem solved, ' Grissom said.

Nick choked on his burger when he heard what Grissom said. Warrick smacked him on the back and laughed.

'You can't be serious Grissom,' Warrick seconded Greg's disapproval.

'Yeah,' said Nick, regaining his regular breathing pattern 'Those two hate each other.'

Grissom looked at them. 'Is that so?' he said with a voice that sounded like he didn't actually care.

'Hate is such a strong word,' Harriet said, hastily, trying to do this as maturely as possible.

'I hate her,' Greg confirmed, not helping matters.

'Will you be quiet and let me handle this please?' Harriet snapped at Greg.

'Will you stop speaking to me as if I'm something you stepped in?' Greg turned and snapped back.

'I'm not, I speak better to things I've stepped in,' Harriet retorted.

'Grissom do you see what I mean I…' Greg turned to speak to him and stopped when he discovered he had left the room whilst they had been arguing.

Harriet looked pleadingly at the rest of the group 'can I stay with one of you?' There was no response; the rest of the CSI's sat looking at her with amused looks on their faces. She smiled sarcastically at them.

'Thanks you guys,' she said and left the break room with Greg shouting after her 'You're not bringing that spider with you, it stays here!'

'Whatever!' she replied.

* * *

Harriet was collecting her things together from the locker room when Greg stuck his head around the door.

'I'm leaving in two minutes, hurry up or you're staying here,' he said and walked away again.

Harriet sighed, slammed her locker door and ran as quickly as her suitcase would allow her to catch up with him. This was not an ideal situation but she was desperate and whilst she had slept all day without waking, the break room sofa wasn't exactly the comfiest thing in the world. She found Greg outside in the parking lot, unlocking his car door. He looked up at her and took a deep breath.

'Here, give me those,' he said, reaching for her suitcase and her bags.

'Thanks,' she said, a little surprised at his chivalry and allowed him to take them and put them in the back of the car.

They both sat in silence on the drive to Greg's apartment. Harriet looked out of the window as they drove past casinos and hotels. She hadn't yet had a chance to explore any of the city but was slightly in awe at the lights and recognised buildings from the television. Greg lived about twenty minutes from the centre of the city in a building made up of several floors of apartments, on the sixth floor. Harriet thought it seemed a nice enough place, it certainly didn't look run down and if he needed someone to share the rent with, it must be quite pricey.

He unlocked the door and opened it, allowing her to walk in first. The first room she walked into was a huge open living area that had the kitchen was incorporated into it at one end. It looked a little like a student's bedroom with movie posters on the wall and a games console laid messily in front of the television, an open game box residing next to it, suggesting that he had been playing a game not long before coming to work.

The kitchen area was to the left of the door and seemed well maintained which surprised her; she wouldn't have expected him to be house proud, in fact the living room was just as tidy.

'It's nice,' she said, as he closed the door and walked into the living room, putting her case down.

'Yeah, to be honest I didn't really want to move out so this kind of works for me,' he admitted.

'Besides the fact you hate me?' Harriet quipped.

'Oh well, that's a minor problem, I'll have to cope,' he said, wandering into the kitchen. 'Want a drink?'

'Nah, I'm fine thanks. Where can I put my stuff?' she asked.

'Oh yeah, I'll give you a tour,' Greg said, seeming to brighten up a little at being able to show off his prized apartment

He pointed to an open door towards the left of the kitchen 'that's my room, you don't really need to see that, it's kind of messy at the minute.'

Harriet nodded, she was feeling really uncomfortable about having to stay with a guy she hardly knew but disliked as much. Greg walked back into the living room, past the television to the other end of the room. Harriet followed to see where he was going. At the end there was another door.

'That's the guest room, you can sleep in there, it's a bit empty though,' he explained.

'That's OK I don't mind,' she said.

'And this behind me is the balcony, obviously. It's very boring, I don't often go out there and that's about it. It doesn't have that many rooms but it's pretty big as you can see, hence the reason it costs so much,' he finished.

'Um bathroom?' Harriet enquired.

'Oh yeah, that's joined onto my room so we'll have to share,' he replied 'Not at the same time though obviously.' He added quickly, turning red slightly.

'Good,' Harriet said, awkwardly, looking at the floor. 'So, I'll go get unpacked then.'

'Sure, I'm just going to watch some TV and go to bed so I'll see you later' Greg said.

'Okay,'

Greg went back into the kitchen and poured himself a drink of milk. Harriet watched him for a second and then went into her new room. It didn't take her long to unpack. She didn't have much with her, she was expecting a delivery van with some of her other belongings to arrive later in the week and she was secretly hoping this would only be a temporary solution anyway. Once her clothes were put away, all she had left were a few picture frames and an alarm clock, which she put on the bedside cabinet. She looked around the room and sighed, suddenly feeling rather lonely and hungry. Not having had time to shop for anything yet, she was going to have to ask Greg which made her feel strange. Asking permission to raid his food cupboard was going to be rather awkward. Eating humble pie wasn't something she enjoyed.

She took a deep breath and went into the living room. Greg was sat playing a computer game, something to do with blasting zombies by the looks of it. He didn't notice her come back in.

'Uh, Greg?' she asked quietly, he didn't seem to hear her 'Greg?' she said again, shouting this time.

He jumped in surprise and the control flew out of his hand and onto the floor. He turned to her.

'God, you scared me, I forgot you were here I'm so used to living alone,' he said.

'Sorry, I was just wondering if you have a take away menu or something?' she said, nervously.

'Sure, but you can take anything you like out of the fridge,' Greg said.

'Thanks,' Harriet replied and walked into the kitchen area, pleasantly surprised at his hospitality despite their hostility towards one another.

Finding some bread and some meat in the fridge, she opted for a sandwich as she was planning on heading to bed soon and didn't want to eat too much or she would never sleep. She sat down on one of the stools that were in front of the breakfast bar and ate in silence. Greg had returned to playing his computer game, only stopping between levels to take a drink of milk or eat one of the cookies he had on the plate next to his foot. Harriet smiled to himself, he was just a big kid although she knew he was immature, this just proved it. She finished up, cleared her plate away and headed to her room.

'Night,' Greg said as she passed, giving her the shock of her life. She hadn't thought he was still focused on the real world. 'I won't be on this long but I'll turn the sound off so I don't keep you awake.'

'Ok, night.' (Technically it was day but you get the idea).

Harriet went into her room, changed and got into bed feeling a little more relaxed about this dreadful situation. Maybe she was getting used to him or maybe he was just putting on a front to make things easier for them. Either way she was glad to have a roof over her head and not have to sleep on the break room sofa again.


	6. Cereal Killers

**Chapter Six – Cereal Killers.**

Harriet woke to her alarm clock bleeping at her. She groaned and rolled over, burying her face in the pillow, not wanting to get up. The clock beeped louder so she rolled back over and hit the button in defeat, turning it off. She sat up and looked around the unfamiliar room she had been sleeping in. Her eyes rested on her favourite photograph and she smiled sadly to herself. She yawned again and climbed out of bed, desperately needing a shower. This was going to be awkward she realised as she remembered that to get to the bathroom she had to go through Greg's room.

She crept quietly out of her room and saw that Greg wasn't in the living room. He must still be in bed, she thought. Ok, I can do this. Harriet walked quietly to his bedroom door and slowly opened it. Greg was fast asleep, one foot hanging off the side of his bed, his hair a spiky mess. She tiptoed over to the door at the end of his bedroom, stepping over the clothes he had been wearing which were in a pile on the floor. Discovering that the door did in fact lead to the bathroom, she quickly tiptoed in and turned on the shower before using the toilet. Trying her best to have the fastest shower she had ever known, she kept checking the door to make sure he didn't come in and see her. Relieved at not yet being discovered, she wrapped herself in a towel, and began to tiptoe back out of the bathroom. She was so busy checking that Greg wasn't awake as she crossed the room that she didn't see the guitar leant against the desk.

There was a resounding twang as the guitar hit the floor.

'Whoozat?' Greg yelled in surprise and sat up.

Harriet screamed in surprise as a result of both the guitar and Greg's shouting startling her. Then to add insult to injury, her towel slipped off.

'Whoa, shit,' Greg turned red and quickly covered his eyes.

Harriet hastily re-covered herself in the towel and ran out of the room, her face burning in embarrassment.

* * *

'Okay, stop being such a wimp,' Harriet told herself as she looked in the mirror 'It happened very quickly, he probably didn't see anything. He was half asleep'

She was trying to reassure herself at the same time as plucking up the courage to leave her room and face him after her embarrassing episode. She had deliberately taken as long as possible to get dressed in the hope of prolonging the agony.

'Oh for goodness sake!' she snapped at herself 'Just go get some breakfast you idiot!'

Taking a deep breath, Harriet opened her bedroom door and walked out into the living room. Greg was in the kitchen turning the coffee machine on. He heard her door close and turned round.

'Oh hey, you want some coffee?' he asked with a tiny smile like he was trying not to laugh.

'So I am actually allowed to drink your coffee now?' Harriet asked, walking into the kitchen and sitting at the breakfast bar, feeling very annoyed that he was laughing at her. Any decent guy would totally disregard what had happened.

'Yeah you deserve it for giving me a wake up call I won't forget in a while,' Greg smirked and took a couple of mugs out of the cupboard.

Harriet scowled at him 'don't even think about it, it never happened o.k?' she said firmly.

Greg nodded and handed her a mug. He took two bowls from the cupboard and sat down opposite her, handing her a bowl.

'Help yourself,' he said, indicating the boxes of cereal on the breakfast bar.

Harriet picked a box and poured some brightly coloured cereal into her bowl. Greg did the same with a different cereal and poured milk on, passing her the carton when he was finished.

They sat and ate in silence for a while. Harriet caught him looking at her a couple of times with a cheeky grin on his face. Men! She thought bitterly, wishing she had a memory-altering device she could use on him. Not a bad idea, she thought, make a mental note to invent one.

'You know they say you can tell a lot about a person from the cereal they eat,' Greg said, bringing her back to reality.

'Oh yeah?' Harriet looked at him, not really interested 'And what are you eating?'

Greg sat up and stuck his chest out 'Cap'n Crunch' he said proudly.

'Is that a good thing?'

'Well, yeah he's a captain, he's the man in charge'

'Okay, keep taking your medication won't you' Harriet quipped.

Greg sighed and reassumed the semi slouching position he had been in before. They continued to eat in silence for another minute or two before Greg spoke again.

'You know, I love cereals,' he said 'But I'm not a cereal killer.'

Harriet rolled her eyes. Someone shut this guy up please.

'Yeah, you're funny,' she said sarcastically.

'Well, at least I'm not a fruit loop,' Greg said, tapping the top of the box of cereal that Harriet had chosen.

She glared at him and he looked back at her. She tried her best to keep the angry look on her face but she saw him begin to smile and they both ended up laughing. Harriet shook her head in defeat.

'Ok, I'll give you that one on one condition.' She said.

'And what would that be?' Greg asked.

'You don't mention what happened earlier to anyone,'

'Deal, it never happened.' Greg promised.

It never occurred to Harriet at the time that he had agreed to that a little too quickly.

* * *

Nick looked up as Harriet and Greg walked into the break room at the start of the shift.

'Aw man,' he said, disappointedly.

'Pay up, bro' Warrick grinned and held out his hand.

Nick pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Warrick.

'Did you guys make a bet on us?' Harriet asked. 'Is that allowed?'

'Ah,' Greg waved his hand, dismissing it 'they do it all the time, they're always betting on something.

'Nicky here figured one of you would turn up today with a black eye,' Warrick explained.

'Glad to see you survived,' Sara said, looking up from the journal she was reading.

'Almost,' said Greg, glancing cautiously at Harriet.

She glared at him, oh my god, what is he going to say.

'Almost?' Sara repeated.

'Yeah she made a real _boob_ of herself earlier,' Greg said, trying not to laugh.

Harriet felt her face start to burn again. Greg poured himself a coffee and raised it slightly as if to toast to her.

'Bottoms up!' he said, grinning and taking a sip.

'You asshole!' she said quietly, through gritted teeth so only Greg could hear her.

He smiled innocently at her. She made a sound like a cross between a growl and a scream of frustration and stormed out of the room after giving Greg a good hard punch on the arm.

'Hey!' he called after her. 'I didn't tell them anything.'

* * *

Harriet was seriously starting to regret moving in with Greg and even moving to Las Vegas for that matter. An hour into the shift and he had come into the lab with a couple of swabs for her to test.

'Can you check out these _boob_ samples please?' he asked.

She looked at him, raised an eyebrow. Greg put his hand to his mouth in mock embarrassment.

'I'm sorry did I say boob? I meant blood of course!'

'Get out.' Harriet said quietly and sternly.

Greg grinned, gave her a wink and left.

And that was just the start of it. Every time he came by the lab he managed to fit every word imaginable for breasts into what he was saying.

'I'm sure we can make living together work. We just need to get _abreast_ of the situation.'

'Get out.'

'I'm going on my break soon. Think I might have fruit salad today, nice piece of _melon _'

'Get out.'

'Man, there was this crime scene out on _boulder _highway once…'

'Get out'

'It was terrible and the investigation went completely _tits_ up.'

'Get out, get out GET OUT.'

Harriet finally lost her patience and screamed at him, causing other people around the lab to look up from what they were doing. Nick, Warrick and Grissom were in the hallway discussing a case and looked up when they heard her shout.

'Aw c'mon I was just having a laugh,' Greg said, walking towards the door, 'what kind of bees make milk? BOOBIES.' He said quickly before running out of the door, down the hallway.

Harriet yelled out in frustration and began to chase after him. He stopped, turned and gave her wave, sticking his chest out.

'YOU SAW MY BREASTS GET OVER IT! ' She screamed at him.

Realising that what she had just said had been heard by the entire building, she turned to go back into her lab and found Grissom looking at her disapprovingly with an amused Nick and Warrick behind him. She smiled weakly and cleared her throat.

'Umm, I'm going to go on a break. If you need me I'll be hiding in the bottom left hand cupboard in the break room, trying to piece my dignity back together.'

Grissom continued to look at her disapprovingly so she headed to the break room, which was empty and made herself an extremely strong coffee that could have done with a shot of vodka adding to it.


	7. Revelations

**Chapter Seven – Revelations**

Harriet refused to speak to Greg for the whole of the week that followed. The ride to and from work was silent and if Greg tried to make small talk, she ignored him completely until about the third day when he gave up trying. If she had DNA results for him, she just handed them to him without a word, he was the DNA tech once, he didn't need the print outs explaining to him. And she showered after she had made sure he was up and in the kitchen.

Bizarrely, things were starting to improve, with Greg not having any opportunity to irritate her; she started to settle in to the lab and felt more at ease but still refused to talk to him. That was until Grissom decided to step in, his size nines quashing any plans she had for not speaking to Greg for the rest of her life.

'Hattie, Grissom wants to speak to you in his office,' Sara said, as she came in to collect some analysis from her.

Sara and Harriet had gotten to know each other well when sitting in the break room and so her nickname which she had let slip, had become the way everyone addressed her now. Everyone except Greg who had given up talking to her at all.

'When?' Harriet replied.

'He said now,' Sara shrugged 'I'm not sure what he wants.'

'Okay, thanks.'

Harriet checked that Monty was in his box before she headed down to Grissom's office. Monty being the tarantula from the case last week. Grissom, being a busy person, had not yet returned to take it to be re-homed so she had unofficially adopted it and given it a name - something that received mixed responses from the other lab workers.

When she reached his office, she discovered that Greg was also there so she waited in the doorway, expecting Grissom to dismiss Greg but instead he instructed her to come in.

'Okay, you two, this has gone on long enough,' Grissom said. 'I expect my staff to behave professionally, whatever their personal differences. I would have expected you to have more integrity than this Harriet.'

She sighed, realising that she had been behaving pretty immaturely.

'But you don't expect me to have any?' Greg asked, suddenly.

Grissom's face looked like thunder, clearly not expecting to be spoken back to.

'I think you just answered that question for yourself!' Grissom snapped 'I want the both of you sort this out when you go home and I expect you to return to work tomorrow at least speaking with a civil tongue!'

Greg sulked but didn't answer back again.

'Yes sir,' Harriet said 'I'm sorry.'

'Now get back to work the both of you and tell Nick and Warrick they can stop wagering as to when you two are going to start speaking again when you see them. I'm sick of the immaturity of the people in this lab!' Grissom was almost shouting at them 'Now get out!'

They didn't need telling twice and they both hastily retreated down the corridor. Harriet glanced at Greg as she turned to go into her lab. He still looked pretty mad as he walked into the break room and slammed the door behind him.

* * *

After another silent car journey home, they walked into the apartment to find lots of boxes on the inside of the door.

'What's all this?' Greg said, looking unhappy about his apartment being invaded.

'Oh these are my things, they're late,' Harriet explained. 'Must have been re-directed or something.'

'Brilliant, I hope you're going to sort them out' Greg said.

'I'll put them in my room, sorry to be such an inconvenience,' Harriet said bitterly.

Greg sighed and turned to her.

'Grissom's right we can't go on like this,' he said.

'He meant when we're at work. We don't have to talk here and I'd rather not do this right now. I'm going to put these boxes in my room.'

'Whatever,' Greg said, throwing his keys onto the breakfast bar.

Harriet stubbornly picked up a box that was incredibly heavy and half-stumbled, half-waddled to her room and put it down in the corner. She returned to the living room as Greg was taking a bottle of red wine out of the fridge and pouring himself some. He looked at her, she held her head in the air, indignantly, and picked another box up and strutted back into her room.

Five boxes later and she was sweating and out of breath. Greg just sat at the breakfast bar with his wine, watching her, clearly trying to make her give in and ask for help. Talking to him might have been in her best interests but she refused to cave and carried another three boxes into her room before kicking a fourth one out of frustration.

'Will you stop looking at me?' she shouted. 'It's bad enough I have to live in this stupid apartment with you without having to look at you.'

'What is your problem?' Greg shouted back 'I'm sat here, not doing a thing and again you're bitching at me.'

'Well if you hadn't been such an ass things would not be like this!'

'It's not my fault that you can't take a joke,' Greg said. 'As soon as you walked into the crime lab you took a dislike to me. Why the hell are you so uptight all the time?'

'Uptight? UPTIGHT?' Harriet roared at him, feeling hot tears forming in her eyes 'you have no idea what my life has been like. You swan around the lab like you're the coolest, funniest guy on the planet without a care in the world and expect everyone else to be as happy as you. Well, for some people, it isn't all that rosy for them and sooner or later one day you will learn for yourself.'

'Of course I know what life is like, I'm a CSI for crying out loud, I see the shit in the world every single day so don't go giving me all this about how I don't care about other people because if you took the time to know me instead of spending all your time scowling at me you might get to see that!' Greg shouted.

Harriet sighed and flopped down onto the floor. She drew her knees up to her chest and covered her eyes, dissolving into tears. This had gotten out of hand and she couldn't take anymore; she was so tired and angry.

'I'm sorry,' she heard Greg say from in front of her.

He had moved over to where she was sitting on the floor. She looked up and wiped her eyes, trying to control her sobbing.

'It's o.k. It's not your fault,' she said, seeing that he looked truly remorseful.

'You wanna talk about it?' he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Her lip trembled and more tears spilled out as she shook her head. She swept them away fiercely, trying to be stronger.

'Seriously, tell me, what is this about? You're obviously keeping something bottled up,' he looked at her sternly as if to say he wasn't taking no for an answer.

Harriet swallowed another sob and looked at the floor.

'Back home in Manchester I was a top level forensic investigator, about the equivalent of your CSI three over here,' she said.

'Really? But you're so young,' Greg said.

'I'm almost twenty-seven; I'm not that young but yeah. I only spent a year in DNA before I became an investigator and I moved up the scale pretty quickly.' She explained.

'What are you, a genius?' Greg looked shocked.

'According to my IQ but I don't really agree,' Harriet said. 'I solved a lot of cases that a lot of top people couldn't.'

'That's cool,' Greg said 'but why did you come over here, I don't get it, sounds like you were doing really well.'

Harriet looked up at the ceiling; she couldn't believe she was going to tell him this.

'I couldn't solve the one case that mattered,' she said, finally, feeling more tears fall down her face.

Greg frowned at her, puzzled, but didn't say anything so she continued.

'My mum was murdered and I guess the killer must have been even more of a genius than I'm supposed to be. I begged them to let me work the case, told them my judgement wouldn't be affected and I held it together but I couldn't find anything to lead me to a killer. I completely let her down,' Harriet sighed as more tears fell silently down her face.

Greg reached over and pulled her into a hug. She sat there and sobbed into his shoulder for a while.

'I'm so sorry, that had to have been difficult for you but you can't blame yourself. You didn't kill her,' he said, rubbing her back comfortingly.

'I know,' Harriet said 'But I just lost all desire to be out in the field anymore, it reminded me too much of what had happened and I – '

'You just wanted to get out of it?' Greg finished for her.

Harriet pulled away and looked at him, surprised.

'That's exactly right. I take back what I said about you not understanding people.'

'Yeah well, I almost died in an explosion at the lab a couple of years back. That's part of the reason I wanted to become a CSI. I didn't have to spend as much time in the lab.' Greg confessed, avoiding eye contact with her.

'Greg, I'm so sorry. I got you totally wrong.' Harriet said.

'Ah, forget it,' Greg said, standing up and offering a hand to help her up which she took. 'Fancy a drink?'

'Yeah, I think I need one.'

'Coming right up,'

Harriet walked over to the sofa and sat down whilst he fetched his glass and another for her. He came to sit beside her, bringing the bottle.

'I figured we could both use more than one glass,' he smiled, holding up the bottle.

'Good thinking,' Harriet said, and took a large swig from the glass.

'So, do you think we're cool now?' Greg asked, taking a sip from his glass. 'I'm sorry for being an ass by the way.'

'Yeah we're cool, fresh start tomorrow sound good?' Harriet suggested.

'Well, it'll keep Grissom happy.'

Harriet smiled and took another drink from her glass.

* * *

_A/N - aaah. I couldn't have them hating each other for twenty eight chapters could I now? Hope you're still enojying it. There will be a bit of angst coming up in a couple of chapters time just to warn you. Thank you for reading this far! _


	8. Olive Branch

**Chapter Eight – Olive Branch**

Harriet could hear her phone ringing. She groaned and moved her head on the pillow. She felt a lump in it so she hit it. What she wasn't expecting was for the pillow to complain about it.

'Oomph. What was that for?' a tired sounding Greg, whined.

Harriet sat up and realised the lump in the pillow had in fact been Greg's ribs. They must have fallen asleep on the sofa after the wine drinking last night. (Greg and Harriet, not Greg's ribs!)

'Sorry I thought you were a pillow,' she explained, groggily.

Her phone rang again, quickly followed by another ring, which was from Greg's phone. He groaned, picked up his phone and wandered through to his bedroom, probably going to use the facilities at the same time. She heard him say 'Hey Grissom what's up?'

'Hello?' Harriet answered her phone.

'Harriet? It's Sara, where are you?'

'I'm at home. Why, what time is it?'

'It's 8.30, we were worried because you and Greg aren't here.'

'Oh my God, we overslept, I'm sorry we'll be right there,' Harriet said, getting up and running into her room to find some clean clothes.

'Ok, well hurry up Grissom isn't too pleased.'

'Thanks. Bye' Harriet hung up.

She quickly began rifling through her closet to find some clean clothes and got dressed as quickly as she could. She almost fell twice and judging by the amount of thudding that was coming from Greg's room, he was also getting changed in a hurry without maintaining his balance as effectively.

* * *

'You two had better be talking to each other now or I am going to be even more pissed off about you being late than I already am,' was Grissom's greeting as Harriet and Greg ran down the corridor of the crime lab in an attempt to make up for being late.

The deed was done however and getting out of breath just to get an earful five minutes sooner seemed futile. We might as well have walked, Harriet thought, at least we could have put this off.

'Yes, we're talking now,' Greg replied.

'And we're sorry we're late,' Harriet added, 'It wont happen again.'

'I hope not, get to work, your lab is backlogged, we've had a busy night already and Greg this is the second time in just over a week that you've been late, it's not like you, sort yourself out.' Grissom ordered before storming into his office.

'Yes sir,' Greg replied to the empty space where his supervisor had once stood.

'I'll see you later,' Harriet said and started to walk towards the lab.

'Yeah, we'll grab a bite later ok?' Greg suggested.

'It depends how I get on if the lab is backlogged but yeah o.k.' She headed into the lab, passing Nick and Warrick on the way, giving them a wave as they headed in Greg's direction.

* * *

'Hey Greg, you stud!' Sara said as he came to join her at the crime scene they would both be working on.

Sara gave him a knowing smile, which he didn't understand, and continued to bag a piece of evidence.

'Sorry I'm late and when did you finally realise I was a stud?' Greg replied, setting his kit down next to hers and taking out his flashlight, shining it across the floor of the house.

'When I found out why you were late again,' Sara grinned again as she lifted a print off a lamp stand.

Greg looked at her, very confused. As much as he liked the idea that she thought he was a stud, he knew her too well to believe her.

'O.K I'm very confused, what's the big joke?' he asked.

'Oh nothing, just something Harriet said earlier when I rang to find out what had happened to you guys,' Sara said, looking in a trashcan.

'I know for a fact, Harriet is the last person on this earth who thinks I'm a stud so what are you talking about?'

Sara looked at him and grinned 'you know what I'm talking about.'

'No I don't,' Greg said, getting frustrated.

'You don't?' Sara asked, her smile dropping a little.

'Care to enlighten me?'

'Oh no it's nothing, just a misunderstanding.'

'Sara!'

'Hey, what do you make of these markings..?'

'Sara!'

* * *

Harriet rubbed her eyes and looked into the microscope again, analysing the hair sample that was magnified beneath the lens. Working fast wasn't a problem for her but she hated feeling behind, losing an hour was still an hour no matter how fast she worked. However, she was gradually coming up to speed by running DNA samples whilst looking at hair samples at the same time. She only had three more samples to run and she was up to date with the backlog and the samples that had been brought in since she had got in to work. She hadn't done too badly if she said so herself.

'Did you tell Sara that we had sex?'

Harriet nearly fell off her chair in surprise. She looked up from the microscope to see her roommate looking at her with a half smile on his face.

'I beg your pardon?' Harriet said, feeling her face burn.

'Sara's been acting weird around me all shift, kind of like she's laughing about something and she called me a stud earlier and said it had to do with something you said to her on the phone,' Greg explained.

Harriet frowned and looked at the floor for a minute, trying to recall the conversation they had had on the phone. After a minute, she looked up her eyes widened.

'Ohhhh,' she said in realisation.

'What do you mean Ohhhh?' he asked.

'I told her _we_ overslept,' Harriet said.

'Ohhhh,' Greg mirrored Harriet's earlier utterance of realisation and then smiled, obviously everything had fallen in to place.

'Sorry, she must have got the wrong idea.' Harriet said, trying not to laugh herself.

'Ah, no worries.'

'Was that all you wanted? I've still got some more samples to run,' Harriet said.

'Oh no, I got you a present on the way back over here,' Greg said.

For the first time, Harriet noticed the brown paper bag he was carrying was not an evidence bag, but what looked like a grocery bag. He handed it to her. She took it from him and smiled, curious as to what he could have bought her. Inside the bag were a small plastic tank and a small metal plate that said 'Monty' on it in the style of an American car licence plate.

'Aww Greg, that's really sweet, how'd you get these at this time of night?' she asked.

'I robbed a pet shop,' he laughed. 'Not really, you'd be surprised at the kind of shops that are open this time of night.'

Harriet smiled and looked at her pet. 'Monty's going to love this.'

'I figured he could do with something more homely than a box' Greg explained.

'It's great, thank you,' Harriet said, transferring the spider to the tank.

'I kind of have a confession to make though,' Greg said, looking a bit guilty.

'What's that?' Harriet frowned.

'Last night Nick and Warrick bet me ten bucks each that you and I would not be talking this morning. I won but I felt kind of bad about making money out of it because you were upset and I have been a bit of an ass so I decided I'd spend the money on you.' Greg explained.

Harriet smiled 'technically you spent the money on Monty but thanks anyway.'

'Well I figured I was a bit mean to the poor guy last week, with the whole you-should –kill-him thing. I still have money left to pay for breakfast.'

'O.k. but on one condition' Harriet said, a sly smile creeping across her face.

'What?' Greg actually looked a little nervous.

Harriet put her hand into the tank where Monty was having a wander round and took him out. She turned and held her hand out to Greg. He took a deep breath and stepped back, looking at her pleadingly.


	9. Making Friends

**Chapter Nine – Making friends (written whilst inebriated – quite impressed that I can spell that whilst under the influence!).**

Harriet looked up as Sara passed by the lab, giving her a sideways glance, and then looking away embarrassed. Harriet smiled to herself, she was enjoying the fact that Sara thought something had happened between her and Greg simply because it was so funny and absurd.

The fact Greg also knew this was a misunderstanding helped her to laugh at Sara's assumption as well. It was kind of Harriet and Greg's private joke, something that gave Harriet a new sense of humility and ability to be relaxed. She supposed this meant she was actually interested in having Greg as a friend as apposed to finding new ways to piss him off until he hated her as much as she hated him. It was strange when she thought about it, how much things could change in one night. She felt that it was time she was less restrictive about her feelings as that always ended up in her deflecting the said feelings into behaviours that were totally out of her character.

Harriet had actually been looking forward to the time when she and Greg could finish work and go and grab some breakfast. Harriet had just finished writing her last DNA results up as Greg walked into her lab.

'Hey, you ready to get some food?' Greg asked, sauntering in, smiling.

'Pretty much,' Harriet said, smiling at the way he stayed in the doorway, looking warily at her pet tarantula.

It had been hilarious when he had taken hold of the creature, the fear evident on his face as it slowly walked across his hand, Harriet could have sworn he took even deeper breaths in and didn't exhale once. Not wanting to be a complete biatch, Harriet had taken Monty back after a minute but by the look on Greg's face, it clearly felt like a lifetime to him.

'So where did you want to go?' Harriet asked, amused by the look of disgust on Greg's face as she kissed the tarantula and made sure he was securely in his tank for the evening.

'Umm, just a diner around the corner, it's a typical American style place, everything comes with fries,' Greg said, tearing his eyes away from the spider.

'Sounds good to me,' Harriet hung up her lab coat and walked towards the door as Greg followed her cue and started to walk down the corridor.

She followed him to his car and got in. The diner wasn't far but they still found the trip long enough to argue about who was the better artist – Marilyn Manson or Green Day. Harriet enjoyed the fact that this time the arguing was playful and mutual rather than hostile.

Upon arriving at the diner, Greg waved to the proprietor who clearly recognised him as a regular and took Harriet to his favourite spot, in the middle of the diner. They looked over the menu for a minute or two and made their choices. Greg got up and ordered their food at the counter and then returned so that he and Harriet could chat. She watched him as he did this, surprised at how relieved she felt that they were no longer at war. She hadn't thought that his approval mattered much to her but obviously, it must to some respect if she was more pleased about being his friend than his enemy.

'I like sitting here,' Greg said, as he sat back down. 'You can people watch without them realising you're watching them.'

'Isn't that an invasion of privacy?' Harriet asked.

'Not really because when you think about it, someone out there has probably innocently watched one of us two. It's in human nature to observe, some more than others,' he explained.

'I guess so, I wonder what their stories are,' Harriet gazed towards the window.

'I totally agree,' Greg said, indicating a solemn looking man trudging past the window in a grey suit, tie unfastened around his neck. 'Like that guy, looks like he's totally down on his luck but he probably just won a couple of mill on the slots and it hasn't quite sunk in yet.'

'Interesting theory but to me he looks like he just _lost_ a couple of mill on the slots.'

'Yeah well, half empty, half full, ' Greg philosophised.

'Do you always see the more positive option?' Harriet asked, surprised at how much she was discovering about him.

Greg shrugged and looked down at the table, he seemed a little embarrassed.

'I guess so,' he said, finally looking at her, a little bashfully. 'It's no use getting hooked up on the negative side of life, in a way I guess I hope that I'm right about them so at least someone is going home happy.'

The owner of the diner brought them their food. Burger and fries for Greg and pancakes for Harriet.

'You mean you're not happy?' Harriet asked, shocked that Greg might feel this way.

'No that's not what I meant. I'm really happy with my life and I love my job, it's what I want to do. I'd just like everyone else to be as lucky as me,' he explained.

'Good for you,' Harriet said, genuinely.

Greg looked up at her and their eyes met for a second or two. He smiled appreciatively; probably relieved that she didn't think he was a freak. Perhaps her approval of him was just as important as his approval was to her, Harriet thought.

Things were certainly taking a completely different direction to what they had been twenty-four hours ago. Harriet smiled to herself, perhaps things were looking up, and perhaps she shouldn't have let things get so bad to begin with. Maybe she should have just been able to take a joke. But then perhaps this kind of moment wouldn't mean as much to her as it did now although she would never dare say it to him. She felt at peace to finally be able to call him a friend.

'Do I have relish on my face?' Greg asked, making her aware that she must have been gazing at him whilst thinking about all this.

'I'm sorry,' Harriet said, shaking herself out of her thoughts 'I was just thinking about something.'

'Don't hurt yourself.'

Greg smiled cheekily at her and she took a couple of fries from his plate and threw them at him. He just laughed, rolled his eyes at her and continued to eat.

'You're a funny, funny guy,' she said sarcastically.

Greg shrugged. 'I try my best.'


	10. Sanders The Hero

_A/N - just a quick warning, this is where things start to get a little bit angsty (is that a word?). There are a couple of quite sad moments coming up but please keep reading! Thank You! _

**Chapter Ten – Sanders the hero. **

Greg smiled to himself as he sat in Grissom's car. Despite the impending crime scene, he felt positive. This was something that didn't occur very often when approaching a crime scene. One always felt a sense of trepidation that this might be their toughest crime scene yet either professionally or emotionally.

He was relieved to be able to talk to Harriet on a more friendly level. It made living and working together so much easier. Not that he had cared what she thought of him before but in a way he supposed he had, subconsciously. Then again, no one likes to be hated by someone no matter how mutual that hate is.

'So, did you see your lady friend last night?' Grissom asked, pulling Greg from his state of contentment.

'What lady friend?' Greg asked.

'The one who was responsible for you being ten minutes late last week?' Grissom said.

'Oh, no she never called me and it wasn't what you think. I was late because we were on a lunch date and I lost track of the time,' Greg explained.

'How do you know that wasn't what I was thinking?' Grissom asked, with his usual unreadable expression on his face.

'I thought maybe you thought I was late because we were…umm…you know,' Greg tried to say but was to embarrassed to mention the 'S' word in front of his boss.

Grissom raised an eyebrow at him as he pulled up in front of the crime scene. A typical suburban home, cordoned off with the infamous yellow crime scene tape one always sees on television.

Upon leaving the vehicle and collecting their kits, Greg and Grissom were greeted by Captain Brass who gave them a brief synopsis of what they were dealing with.

'We've got a 419, male Caucasian victim, thirty years old, head wounds. Also, we have yet to rule out a possible kidnapping,' Brass was explaining.

'Kidnapping?' Greg interrupted.

'Yeah, the deceased has a five year old son, we checked the house – he's not in there but from what the neighbours have told us, the Vic was separated from the child's mother so he may be with her. We have yet to get confirmation of that,' Brass explained.

Grissom thanked him and he and Greg entered the house, finding the victim on the floor of the living room. Whilst Grissom spoke to Dr Robbins, the coroner, Greg did a quick scan of the living room. Leading from the living room was a short hallway. Shining his torch, he spotted a small blood spatter. It was quite a distance from where the victim was lying. Greg walked up to it, took a photograph and looked at the direction it was pointing. It looked to him like it was leading away from the victim, suggesting that it was someone else's blood.

He walked further down the corridor and into the first room on the right. This was clearly the child's room judging by the toy trucks that were scattered across the floor and the children's drawings that hung on the walls. What didn't fit was the telephone handset lying in the middle of the floor a foot away from the bed. Greg took another snapshot and picked it up. There was a small bloody fingerprint on the nine and one buttons. Too small to be an adults. Greg felt a warm feeling rising in his throat. He couldn't abide children being victims. Not that anyone being a victim was a good thing but with children he always felt it was worse.

Greg was kneeling on the floor, about to take a fingerprint from the handset when he heard a small noise. He stopped and listened, heard it again. It sounded like a whimper. Slowly, he put the phone back onto the floor and looked to his right where the bed was. The blankets on the bed were hanging down over the sides, obscuring whatever was underneath the bed. He quietly moved towards the bed and lifted up the blanket. He couldn't see anything, and began to wonder if he was imagining it. Despite this, he clicked on his torch and shone it under the bed, almost jumping out of his skin when he saw a pair of brown eyes looking back at him.

The little boy whimpered and looked at him. His eyes were wide and he looked terrified as Greg took a few seconds to register what to do next. He put his hand out towards the child who whimpered and tried to scoot away from him.

'Don't kill me,' the little boy said, sniffing back tears.

'I'm not going to kill you,' Greg tried to reassure him.

'You got a gun,' the little boy said, looking at Greg's belt where the gun was sitting in its holster.

'That's only there in case the bad guys try anything,' Greg said with a small smile.

'Are you a cop?' the little boy seemed to calm a little.

'Sort of,' Greg said 'I help the cops catch the bad guys. My name's Greg. What's yours?' He continued, holding out his hand.

'Mikey,' the boy said, quietly and gingerly held out his own hand.

'Nice to meet you, Mikey,' Greg said, shaking his hand. 'Are you hurt?'

'My head, he hit my head,' Mikey replied.

Greg looked at him; he had been so focussed on the boy's eyes and trying to calm him that he had missed the blood that was trailing down the boys face and neck.

'Just on your head?' Greg confirmed.

Mikey nodded and his bottom lip trembled. Greg squeezed his hand.

'Don't worry little guy I'm gonna get you out of here o.k?'

Mikey nodded and Greg slid him closer to the edge of the bed so he could get him out. When he was out from under the bed, Greg slid an arm under his legs and Mikey instinctively put his arms around Greg's neck as Greg stood up, cradling him like a baby.

'O.k. I'm going to take you outside so someone can take a look at you. I don't want you to touch anything on the way and I need you to close your eyes o.k?'

Mikey nodded and Greg started to walk out of the child's room. He saw Grissom look up at him as he approached the living room, an expression of surprise washed over his face and he shouted for a paramedic. Greg felt Mikey flinch against him, scared by the shouting.

'It's o.k. Just keep your eyes closed.' He reassured him.

Mikey scrunched his eyes shut tighter and Greg walked out of the house towards the ambulance that had just been preparing to leave after assessing the dead body of Mikey's father.

Greg laid Mikey on the trolley the paramedics pulled out and told the boy to open his eyes. He felt his stomach tighten and his eyes stung with tears when he saw how afraid the child was. Mikey was clutching on to his hand and wouldn't let go.

'I need my hand back,' Greg smiled at him, trying not to cry 'These nice paramedics are going to take you to the hospital and fix you up o.k?'

'Can't you come with me?' Mikey pleaded.

'I'm sorry, little man, this nice policeman is going to go with you. I have to stay and look at your house.'

'Are you gonna catch the bad guy?'

'I certainly am and when I can I'm going to come and see you at the hospital.'

Mikey nodded and let go of his hand. Greg stood and watched as the paramedics loaded up the ambulance and drove away. He took a deep breath and looked down at his gloved hands, they were shaking quite a bit. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Grissom standing there.

'Well done Greg,' Grissom said 'that was great.'

'It doesn't feel great,' Greg said.

'Are you going to be all right to continue working this scene with me?'

'I'm fine,' Greg said, flatly.

He walked past Grissom, back into the house. His heart was beating hard and he suddenly became aware of the small patch of blood that was soaking his shirtsleeve. Mikey's injury must have been worse than it looked but Greg wasn't a doctor, he couldn't tell. He just hoped the kid would be all right. Taking a deep breath, he returned to the child's room and began to take prints and swabs from the phone.

* * *

'He's got a brand new car, looks like a jaguar.' Harriet sang to herself, along with her CD player as she drummed on the counter and looked into the microscope.

She was working on a fairly large batch of DNA samples that Sara and Catherine had brought in earlier and it was taking some getting through but she didn't mind. She was in a good mood. Living with Greg was so much easier now they weren't arguing and she felt like she had really made a good friend. O.k., so they had only been on good terms for a couple of days but she actually looked forward to him dropping by the lab every now and then with things for her to analyse.

'I need these running ASAP,' a voice said.

Harriet looked up and smiled at Greg.

'Hey Greg, how's it going? I'll get to yours as soon as I've done these. Sara and Cath gave me a collection of samples that's even taking me some time to get through.' she said, cheerily.

'Run them now,' he said, coldly.

Harriet looked at him. He looked very distant and she couldn't sense a trace of his usual laid back attitude.

'I'll get to them as soon as I can, I promise. I need to get these ones done first or I'm going to get behind,' Harriet said.

'Do them now; you'll catch up on the others. You're supposed to be a genius,' he said with a hint of bitterness in his voice and walked out of the lab stating that he would be back in an hour.

Harriet looked at the space he had recently occupied, dumbfounded. Was he in a bad mood? He had seemed fine this morning. She caught Grissom looking at her. He nodded to her as if to confirm that she should run Greg's samples first so without questioning what had just happened, she got to work.

* * *

_A/N - again, I am not very good at the whole forensics bits so apologies if they seem really unrealistic when they are featured. Thank You! _


	11. On My Shoulder

_A/N - this is the really sad chapter. Sorry if this is getting a bit dramatic. I didn't know what i was going to write when i started this story, I just literally made it up asIwent along which is whyI ended up with such a long story. Hope you are still enjoying it though!_

**Chapter Eleven – On my shoulder**

Sitting down next to the bed, Greg took the little boys hand. He was fast asleep and looked so small, a large bandage wrapped around his head. Greg exhaled deeply, thinking back to the conversation he had just had with the doctor.

'We've managed to stabilise him but he's taken quite a hit to the head and lost a significant amount of blood. There is evidence of some swelling to his brain but as yet we can't assess the severity of that.'

'But he was conscious when I found him, ' Greg had protested.

'Clearly he was very lucky to have hung on as long as he did without medical attention but kids can be surprisingly resilient.' The doctor had explained.

Greg stroked his thumb over the back of Mikey's hand, willing the child to be o.k. As if sensing his presence, Mikey sleepily opened his eyes a little. Greg sat up a little as the boy looked at him.

'Mikey?' he said quietly.

The little boy smiled faintly, opening his eyes a bit more.

'Is that Greg?'

'Sure is,' Greg replied, feeling touched that he remembered him.

'Have you got the bad guy?'

Greg looked away for a second, a sinking feeling in his stomach. He had worked at the scene for two and a half hours, leaving no stone unturned so to speak, then spent a further two at the lab after dropping off the samples in DNA and, he still had no leads except for a sample belonging to an as yet unidentified third party.

'Not yet, buddy, but we're close. Has a policeman been to talk to you yet?'

'No.'

'Do you feel up to talking about it? My friend Captain Brass would really like to talk to you.' Greg said, gently.

'O.k., I'll try,' Mikey said, bravely.

Greg smiled and went outside to get Captain Brass who was talking to the policeman on guard outside the hospital room. He seemed to be having a stern word with him about where he had checked for the boy in the house and how they could have missed it.

'Hey there Mikey,' Captain Brass said as Greg sat down with the boy again.

'Hi,' was the child's quiet reply.

'I just wanna ask you a couple of questions and we can stop anytime you want, is that all right?'

Mikey nodded so Brass continued.

'Where's your mommy?' he asked.

'She's gone to France for her job,' Mikey said

'And you've been living with your dad?'

Mikey nodded again.

'O.k., can you tell me what happened in your house today?'

Mikey looked nervously at Greg and then back at Brass, his hands were shaking but he began to talk anyway.

'I went to go watch T.V and my daddy was on the floor. He looked like he was sleeping so I tried to wake him up but there was lots of blood so I got the phone to ring 911,' Mikey said, silent tears running down his face.

'And then what happened?'

'Then Dave came out of the kitchen and saw me and he had blood on him too. He looked really mad and I got scared and started running to my room and he hit me and my head hurt so I ran in my room and hid under my bed.' Mikey finished and looked at Greg again.

'It's o.k. Mikey you're doing a great job,' Greg said, smiling at him. 'Who's Dave?'

'He works with my daddy he's really big and he's got yellow hair and a monster on his arm.'

'What kind of monster?' Greg asked.

'Like a dinosaur but it has fire in it's mouth. It's a red one.'

Greg looked at Brass. Finally, a lead.

'Thank you very much Mikey, you did really well.' Brass said and jerked his head for Greg to follow him outside.

Greg told Mikey he would come and see him again. Mikey asked him if he could bring him his favourite book from home and read it to him.

'I'll see what I can do, you get some rest,' Greg gave him a wink and followed Brass outside.

* * *

Three hours later…

Dave, as it turned out, had a dragon tattooed on his arm and wasn't quite as big as Mikey had described him. Although, to a five year old, he must have seemed it. The police raided his house and found him trying to burn his clothes and hide a newly cleaned baseball bat, very unsuccessfully in his garage. When he processed the suspected murder weapon, Greg had found brown hairs trapped under some splinters, which he bagged and took down to the DNA lab where Harriet immediately took them from him and began running analysis on them, without a word. Thirty minutes later, she had come back with the results and Greg had joined Grissom and Brass in the interrogation room.

'So, Dave,' Grissom said, putting a bitter emphasis on the suspects name. 'You like to practise your swing on human heads? Personally I prefer a baseball although I'm not one for competitive sports.'

'Figures, you're kind of fat,' Dave replied, smugly.

Normally, Greg would have tried very hard to stifle a laugh at a comment like that but today he was too angry.

'Don't try denying this,' Greg snapped. 'We found your prints on the bat, and you were burning the clothes you were wearing.'

'I was getting rid of some old stuff and the bat is mine so of course my prints are on it,' Dave said, coolly.

'So how do you explain the blood on your clothes? It's an exact match to Mr Richardson.' Greg said, eyeing the man viciously.

'We hang out, we got in a fight the other day over something stupid,' Dave lied.

' I think you murdered him,' Greg said.

Grissom just sat quietly, not getting much chance to get a word in edgeways. Dave sat forward, bringing his face closer to Greg's. He smiled arrogantly.

'I didn't murder him or his kid,' he said.

'Who said anything about his kid?' Greg asked.

Dave's face fell. A look of panic came into his eyes.

'You did, you said his kid was there.'

'No I didn't, so how would you know his kid was even there if you didn't murder him?' Greg said, feeling triumphant.

'You can't prove anything,' Dave resumed his confident defensive demeanour.

'Yes I can because along with the blood on your shirt, I also have hairs from your baseball bat that match both Mr Richardson and his child and I bet the other DNA I found at the scene is a match to you.' Greg said, his turn to be smug.

Dave lunged at him across the table, grabbing him by the throat. Grissom and Brass both moved at the same time and pulled the man from Greg. Brass began reading him his rights. Greg stood up and left the interrogation room, feeling relieved that he had got the guy. Nearly being strangled to death hadn't really fazed him, he was too focussed.

'Greg, I don't ever want you to behave like that in an interrogation again,' Grissom said, coming out after him.

'What? I got him, what's wrong with that?'

'You were practically goading him!' Grissom snapped.

* * *

Harriet sighed, relieved, as she finished up the last of Sara and Catherine's samples. They had been mildly annoyed at their stuff being put to the bottom of the pile but didn't complain too much. She decided to head to the break room, having worked for 6 hours solid, which always happened when she was involved in her work.

Glancing up the corridor, she could see Greg was arguing with Grissom outside the interrogation room. She hadn't known everyone long but she knew that this was out of character for Greg. He must have really gotten involved in this case. She had heard the basics of it from Grissom and other people in the lab. Still, it looked like Grissom had got the last word as Harriet saw whilst she was returning to her lab. Grissom said something to Greg and walked away.

Not wanting to push someone who was clearly not having a good day, Harriet decided against going to see if Greg was o.k. Instead she watched as he started to walk down the corridor. He looked angry and rubbed his forehead as though it ached, then stopped suddenly to answer his mobile phone. After a few seconds, listening to the caller, Greg closed up his phone and stood staring into space before leaning against the wall of the break room and putting his hand to his face.

'Oh my God, he's crying,' Harriet said quietly to herself and raced out of her lab.

* * *

Damn Grissom, so what if he'd got involved in this. He had still got the result they'd needed. Just because he was new to being a CSI, didn't mean he had to criticise everything he did. Greg was still fuming when he heard his cell phone go off. He dug in his pocket and pulled it out.

'Sanders.'

'Hello Mr Sanders, it's Dr Hall from Las Vegas University hospital. I'm calling about Mikey Richardson.'

Greg had an ominous feeling as the doctor spoke.

'What is it?' Greg asked at last.

'I'm afraid the swelling to Mikey's brain was quiet severe and he suffered a haemorrhage.'

'Is he going to be all right?' Greg asked.

'I'm afraid he passed away ten minutes ago. I was hoping you might have contact details for his next of kin.'

'No I don't but I'll get Captain Brass to get in touch with you.' Greg said and hung up.

He stared at the floor for a minute, taking in the information he had been given. Suddenly, he felt weak. He leaned to the side and found himself resting against the outer wall of the break room. Tears welled up in his eyes and he couldn't hold them back anymore. Instinctively, he put a hand to his eyes as the sobs came. Salty tears ran down his face. This was all so unfair, the case had been solved, the murderer caught. Why did Mikey still have to die?

* * *

'Greg?' Harriet said, gently as she approached him.

He looked up, taking in a shaky breath. His face was tearstained and he looked at a complete loss.

'What's wrong?' she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

'You know the kid I found at the crime scene?' Greg said, taking another choking breath.

Harriet nodded.

'He's…he's…' Greg burst into tears again and Harriet got the message.

She pulled him into a hug and let him cry on her shoulder. He just stood with his arms by his sides, not responding to her gesture.

'I'm so sorry Greg,' she said. 'I know it's awful when children die.'

'It's so unfair,' Greg said as his knees gave way and he began to sink to the floor.

Harriet knelt down with him and held him. She hated seeing him like this and anyone could see how cut up he was about this.

'I know it is, the world is like that sometimes,' she said.

Greg finally wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly, like a child seeking comfort from its mother.

'I know but it doesn't make it any easier,' he said.

'It certainly doesn't.' Harriet said.

'What's going on?'

Harriet looked up to find Grissom had turned up, he must have been on his way to his office and been distracted by his CSI and his DNA specialist sitting awkwardly in the corridor.

'Your case just turned into a double homicide,' Harriet explained. 'Greg's a bit upset.'

Greg, being a man, released Harriet, wiped his eyes and stood up.

'Sorry boss,' he apologised.

'No need Greg, I understand. I'll speak to Brass. Do you two want to go home? You can't work like this.'

'But shift doesn't finish for another three hours,' Greg said.

'It's o.k. You can go. If I need Harriet, I'll give her a call.' Grissom said.

Greg nodded and looked at Harriet. She smiled and nodded, as he seemed to be questioning her as to whether she wanted to come with him. Grissom gave Greg an uncharacteristic pat on the back and headed on to his office.

* * *

Greg was so distraught he didn't think to feel embarrassed when Harriet came to comfort him. He was glad he wasn't alone, despite being a grown man and sobbing in the hallway. Her presence calmed him both because she cared and because he knew that she knew what he was going through in a way. He was not this child's father but had quickly developed a bond with him and now he was gone. Another victim, another case number. That was when his legs gave way and he lost it, even though he was starting to feel like a fool. Then Grissom turned up and he somehow found the strength to regain his composure. He would have been lying if he'd said he wasn't relieved at being allowed to go home and he was just as appreciative of Harriet giving up the rest of her shift to go with him.

She drove them back to the apartment, another silent journey although this time it was out of friendship not opposition, as she probably understood that he didn't need to talk just yet. As soon as he got in the door, he felt the tears come again. Harriet just took him in her arms and held him. He held her back, glad of the company. He apologised but she wouldn't have any of it.

'Don't worry about it. Just cry on my shoulder I don't mind. It's what I'm here for,' she said.

'I'm glad you're here.'

* * *

_A/N - I realise Grissom and Greg are probably both completely out of character here but it works for what I'm doing anyway. Please humour me! Thanking you again. _


	12. Nightmares

**Chapter Twelve – Nightmares. **

Harriet woke with a start as somewhere in her state of dreaming, she had remembered that she hadn't fallen asleep in her bed. She tried to catch her breath after the nightmare she had just had. Images of her mother lying on the ground blurred out of focus as she took in the real world.

Her neck was aching and she realised it was because she had been sleeping sitting up with her head leant against the sofa. She rubbed her neck and looked up at Greg, who was still fast asleep, spread across the sofa where she had made him lie down when they got in from work. He had lay quietly for what seemed like a long time, not crying but not talking either. Harriet hadn't forced it. He needed to get over this in his own way.

She sighed, could understand how he felt to an extent. Aware that he hadn't been a CSI for a year yet, she knew it probably felt like the worst assignment he had ever had but she knew from experience that he would get worse scenes, although he would never forget the first one that really got to him. The edges of his eyes still looked a bright shade of pink from the crying he had done before but he looked peaceful enough. Harriet envied him; she wished sleeping would shut her off from her problems but sleeping sometimes made it worse. She relived them. Sighing to herself, she got up and began to get ready for the day ahead. Technically, wasn't it night? Working the graveyard shift was really starting to confuse her. It was five o'clock so perhaps it was the afternoon. Still pondering this, she trudged into Greg's room to take a shower. Another thing she found confusing, she had to go into someone's bedroom to take a shower. Strange little things like that amused her.

* * *

Greg awoke to the smell of bacon. He lay on the sofa for a moment and took a deep sniff of the aroma that was wafting in from the kitchen. As if spurring him on, he got up quickly and stretched with a large silent yawn, turning towards the kitchen. Harriet was busy cooking with her back to him so didn't see him.

Taking an irresistible opportunity, Greg slowly and quietly walked up behind her, trying to keep the smile that was threatening his face from appearing. He poked her in the sides, trying to tickle her. She didn't flinch.

'Morning Greg,' she said, casually.

Greg walked to her side and leaned against the counter.

'What is wrong with you? How come you didn't squeal like a normal person?' he asked in disbelief.

'Firstly, you snore worse than I do so when it stopped I knew you were awake and when it was so quiet I figured you were up to something. Oh, and I'm not ticklish,' she explained, tipping the bacon onto a plate.

'You are so strange,' Greg said.

Harriet smiled at him and took some bread and a bottle of sauce he didn't recognise from the cupboard. She walked over to the breakfast bar and sat down whilst Greg poured himself some coffee.

'What are you making,' Greg asked as he sat down opposite her.

'Bacon butties, U.K style,' she announced.

'Butties?' Greg repeated not recognising the slang.

'Sorry - sandwiches,' she said, passing him a plate with one on.

Greg looked at it, unsure. What was so special about U.K style bacon sandwiches? He was a little worried that she might be playing a practical joke on him.

* * *

Harriet was glad that Greg seemed to have woken up in a playful mood. Although she knew he hadn't forgotten about yesterday, he must be ready to get on with everything else and not let it eat him up. She was amused at his face when she presented him with the bacon sandwich.

'It's not poisoned you know,' she said, with a smile, taking a large bite of her own sandwich.

'What makes it U.K style?' Greg asked.

'HP,' Harriet said proudly, 'also known as brown sauce.'

'Oh, what does it taste like?'

'Umm, its hard to describe, kind of tangy,' she said.

Greg pulled a face as if to say 'whatever you say' and bit into the sandwich. He looked unsure as his taste buds adjusted to this new taste then, seeming impressed, he continued to eat. Harriet smiled and also carried on eating her own sandwich.

Her thoughts went back to her nightmare. She had seen her mother lay on the ground in a different position to what she had been at the crime scene. In the background she had heard a small child crying, asking for its mother. Then the scene had changed rapidly from image to image, like she was taking snap shots of evidence – a comb, a gun, a bloodied knife. It had all been so confusing. Her other nightmares had been similar but the images had been the same each time. In last nights dream, they had been new images; it was like she was trying to tell herself she had missed something important. And the child crying, she was sure that was just because of what Greg had been through but at the same time she knew there was a possibility it was something else.

'Harriet, what's wrong?' Greg asked suddenly, pulling her from her daydream.

'Nothing, I'm fine,' she said, instinctively.

'Don't lie; you're shaking. What is it?' he asked again, this time more insistent.

Harriet looked at her hands that were holding on tightly to the sandwich and as Greg had said, they were shaking tremendously. She put the sandwich down and brushed the crumbs off her hands.

'Oh, it's nothing, sugar low that's all. Don't worry so much,' she lied, getting off the bar stool and walking towards her room.

Harriet walked as fast as she could into her room so that Greg wouldn't have chance to protest. She sat on her bed and stared at her mobile phone, wondering if she should do this or not. If she was going to make this call, she was going to have some things to answer for. She sighed and started to dial a number. It rang a few times and she almost put it down as she felt her heart beating stronger. As she was about to hang up someone answered.

'Samuels.'

'Hi Rick, it's Hattie.'

There was no response on the other end of the line as the caller was shocked into silence.

'Rick are you still there?'

'Yeah, I'm here,' he said at last. 'It's good to hear your voice.'

'Thanks, I was wondering if you could do me a favour.'

'I thought there was a catch.' he replied.

Harriet explained what she wanted him to do. He argued with her a little at first but in the end she won him over. He was the only one who could help her get what she needed, the only one with jurisdiction and she knew he would do anything to help her.

'Ok, I'll see what I can do,' he said, defeated.

'Thank you. Call me with the details,' Harriet said.

'I will.'

'Thank you. Bye.' She was about to hang up when he stopped her.

'Harriet, wait, I …I miss you,' he said.

Harriet rubbed her forehead with her free hand. What could she say to that?

'Rick, don't say that please,' she said.

'I love you.'

Harriet snapped the phone shut and fell back on to her bed. She stared at the ceiling for a while until Greg knocked on the door and asked if she wanted to go into work early seeing as they had left early yesterday. She was up for that; work had always provided a welcome distraction from having to think about anything relatively important.

* * *

_A/N - oooh! I hope you're all wondering what the heck is going on here? If so then that means i did a half decent job of writing it. I tried to throw in a few twists to keep everyone interested,I hope it's working! _


	13. Funeral For A Friend

**Chapter Thirteen – Funeral for a friend.**

'Hey Greggo, how's it going?' Nick asked, cheerily.

Greg muttered a quiet 'hey' in return to Nick's greeting and slumped down onto the break room sofa. Harriet quietly squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and went over to the coffee machine to get them both a drink.

'Is something wrong?' Nick asked.

Greg took a deep breath and glanced at Harriet. How dumb could Nick get? They had both walked solemnly into the break room, him in a black suit and tie, Harriet in a black dress and jacket.

'Had Mikey's funeral today,' Greg said, not really wanting to discuss it.

'Who?'

'The little boy from Greg's case last week,' Harriet explained, sitting down next to Greg and handing him his coffee.

'Oh right, sorry man, how're you holding up?' Nick asked.

Greg sighed. It had been a week since Mikey's death and it was still haunting him. He knew he wasn't anything to do with this child and it should just be another case to him but he was still a human beingand he hadfeelings. Man, I sound like I'm on Oprah, he thought to himself. Still, he would have given anything as he watched Mikey's coffin being lowered into the ground not to have emotions. He could be a Vulcan, it would be so much easier, but instead he had to be a human and a male at that in a world where the societal norm was that he shouldn't cry like a baby at the funeral of a child he only knew for a few hours.

'Greg? Was everything o.k?' Nick was asking him.

Greg searched for something to say that wouldn't make him sound too involved or too lame.

'He was absolutely fine,' Harriet interrupted before Greg could speak. 'He really represented the side for us.'

'Nice one,' Nick said.

Greg looked to Harriet with an immense feeling of respect as she relayed how Greg had done an incredibly moving reading. She knew full well he had been a wreck at the funeral but she wasn't about to say that. He had felt a little foolish at not being able to control his emotions during the readings.

Mikey's mother had been told about Greg finding Mikey in the house and visiting him at the hospital and had invited him to do a reading. Greg hadn't had a clue what to do but the day before the funeral had remembered about Mikey's favourite book that he had asked for before he died.

'When I visited Mikey in the hospital, he asked me if he could have this book,' Greg had said, holding it up for the mourners to see. 'He also asked if I could visit him again and read it to him, he never got the chance to hear it so I'd like to read some of it today.'

He had then continued to read the story out loud but hadn't been able to make it past the second page as the innocence of the words hit him, emphasising what a waste this child's death had been, his voice broke and he began to cry. Harriet had stepped up to the podium with him and finished the page for him before leading Greg back to his seat. Greg was angry with himself for being like that. He didn't want Harriet to think he was weak and feeble as selfish as it seemed to think like that at a child's funeral. He wanted to be able to show her that he was capable of more than being goofy and crying.

'I have to go, I need to get to my lab,' Harriet said. 'Will you be o.k?'

'Yeah sure,' Greg smiled and nodded.

He watched her get up off the sofa and return her mug to the sink before leaving the break room. He could feel a small smile on his face and he watched the closed door for a second or two before realising Nick was staring at him, a sly grin on his face.

'What?' Greg asked.

'Man, you've got it bad,' Nick said, shaking his head and smiling at him.

'I've got what bad?' Greg asked, confused.

'You have a major crush on Hattie,' Nick said.

'I do not!' Greg protested, his mouth dropping.

'Yes you do, you just watched her every move as she left and I saw the way you looked at her when she was telling me about the funeral.'

'That's because she was dressing it up for my benefit. It was a look of respect.' Greg tried to explain.

'Yeah, whatever,' Nick said, getting up from the table and putting his own mug into the sink.

He turned to Greg before leaving the break room.

'That wasn't a look of respect,' Nick said again, eyeing him firmly.

'Yes it was Nick, what else would it be?'

'The look of love,' Nick sang, impersonating the old love song, swaying slightly in a mock dance move, before leaving the break room.

Greg sat dumbfounded. He did not have a crush on Harriet. Yes, he had misjudged her at the beginning and yes, he really valued the friendship they had built in a short time and he found her easy to talk to. But he didn't find her attractive. She was always wearing smart, unflattering trousers and shirts, she never wore make up and her hair was always scraped back into a ponytail. That's really shallow Sanders, he told himself but it was true. She hardly advertised herself to the opposite sex. She could be a lesbian for all he knew. Although today, the dress had suited her, it clung to her curves in the right places in a conservative way and she had worn her hair down for a change. It was the first time he had noticed that it was actually cut into a nice style to suit her face and she must have worn some mascara because her eyes were more noticeable today. They were brown; he hadn't really noticed that before and they had a distinct look of sadness about them that someone so young shouldn't have.

'Oh my god,' Greg said to himself, under his breath.

Maybe he did have a crush on her. He had to admit that he smiled when he wandered down to her lab to say hello or give her a cheeky taunting remark as he often did, only in a joking way. At least now she took his jokes the right way. No, it was just Nick putting ideas into his head. But maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. Greg was getting confused. He decided maybe it would be a good idea to suggest they went out together, not on a date, but he could get to know her better and make a more informed decision about how he felt

Deciding this would sort out his head, he set off down the corridor towards her lab. She wasn't there but Hodges informed him that she was on her way to reception. Greg trotted down to the reception desk and saw her talking to the woman behind it who pointed to something. He was about to call out to her as Harriet turned around and looked in the direction the woman had been pointing.

Greg felt like the next thirty seconds went in slow motion. A man and a small boy were sitting on chairs in the waiting area. The little boy jumped up and ran towards Harriet. Nothing could have prepared Greg for what he heard next.

'Mummy!'

* * *

_A/N - Heh heh! Another twist for you all there. I hope you didn't see that coming! Can I also just point out that I **wasn't** making any derogatory assumptions about lesbians in that chapter just in case it sounds like I am. _


	14. Bad Timing

**Chapter Fourteen – Bad Timing**

Harriet could not believe he had brought him here. All she'd wanted was the stuff she'd asked for sending over. This was not the special delivery she'd had in mind. She looked at the small boy clutching onto her legs and felt anxious. How was she going to explain all this to everyone? The boy tugged on her trouser leg and looked up at her, his brown eyes wide and his fathers blonde hair flopping in his face. Pulling herself together she smiled and knelt down to the child's level.

'Hey there sweetheart how are you?' she asked.

'I'm o.k. I saw Toy Story twice on the plane!' he announced proudly before launching himself at her and wrapping his tiny arms around her neck.

Harriet felt awkward. She brought one hand up and patted him cautiously on the back.

'I missed you, mummy,' he said.

'I'm sorry, I've been at work,' she said.

'Jakey, come here,' a familiar voice said.

Harriet stood up as the boy let go and ran back to his father who had been standing observing the reunion. She put her hand out for him to shake.

'Hello, Rick,' she said, quietly.

He took her hand and held it, leaning forward and giving her a kiss on her cheek. She stiffened, nervous, not wanting this kind of contact with him. He stood back and looked at her with that same look she was used to like he was disappointed that she didn't love him.

'Did you bring the stuff I asked for?' she said at last.

'Yeah I brought the stuff you asked for and a bit extra,' he said, coldly, looking at Jake.

'I don't know why you couldn't just post it to me,' Harriet said, not looking at the child.

'I don't know why you rang after two months of not speaking to me and asked for a bunch of evidence without even asking about the well being of your son,' Rick replied.

'Rick, don't do this here, please,' Harriet pleaded.

'We're staying at a hotel on the strip,' Rick said, handing her a matchbook from the hotel lobby. 'I'll send your stuff over tomorrow.'

He walked out with the boy holding his hand. Jake looked round at her as they walked out the door, trying to keep up with his father's pace. Harriet sighed and turned to go back to the lab when she saw Greg. He was standing still, looking at her, hands in his pockets, tie unfastened around his neck. She walked over to him.

'You just win a couple of mill on the slots?' she joked, starting to fasten up his tie.

He backed away so she stopped.

'You're not a lesbian then,' he said, absently.

'What?' Harriet asked, obviously having no clue as to what that had to do with anything.

'Ummm nothing, maybe I just lost two mill on the slots,' he said and walked back down the corridor into the men's locker room.

Harriet looked at the matchbook with the name of the hotel on it, where Rick and Jake were staying. She turned and walked down the corridor, heading back to her lab. As she walked through the door she dropped the matchbook casually to her right, into the wastepaper bin.

* * *

Greg pulled off his jacket and tie and threw them into his locker. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. Why did it have to be right after he had decided he wanted to get to know her better? Why did Nick even have to put the stupid idea in his head? At least now he knew for certain he didn't have a crush on her. Then why was he ramming a five hundred dollar suit into his locker? This was all he needed; confirmation that he cared about her to the point where he was jealous that she already had a family. Maybe he was angry because she had kept this from him, maybe he hated that he couldn't trust her like he thought he could. He sighed, pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and headed over to the layout room to help Nick with his case. He decided he would wait until Harriet was ready to tell him. Maybe it wasn't any of his business and she definitely didn't need to know what he had been planning moments before seeing her with her son. Time just hadn't been on his side.

* * *

_A/N - please don't all hate Harriet. She has her reasons and all will be revealed soon. _


	15. I've Got Another Confession, My Friend

**Chapter Fifteen – I've got another confession, my friend. **

Harriet knew she was going to have to explain this to Greg. If he hadn't been standing there, she wouldn't have to. How much had he heard? All of it, she assumed, by the way he couldn't wait to walk away. She was so nervous that what would probably have been a silent car journey, like the many they had previously had after certain dilemmas, turned her into a gibbering wreck. She made enough small talk to satisfy the chitchat quota of a small village.

'So how were you at work?'

'Fine,' Greg said, changing gear and staring at the road.

'I didn't see you much,'

'Was busy helping Nick with his case.'

'Oh o.k. Were you all right after the funeral, though?'

'I was fine. Life goes on I guess,' Greg sighed and flicked his indicator on to turn left.

'I know but I was worried about you.'

'I'm sure you were.' Greg flicked the indicator off after making the turn.

'I meant what I said you know.'

'About what?'

'About you representing the side well.'

'Yeah as if I did.' Greg glanced at her before looking back at the road.

'I was proud of you. You did Mikey justice.'

'I didn't do anything, I hardly knew the kid. No one did him any justice, he still died.'

This finally shut Harriet up. He hadn't asked her anything yet. Perhaps he had forgotten, still preoccupied by the funeral. How self centred she had been to think that Greg was interested in her life when he was mourning for a child he had tried so hard to save.

Despite thinking this, Harriet was still on edge back at the apartment. Greg sat playing on his games console, shooting out drug dealers. She went in the kitchen to get a drink. He hadn't said a word about Rick or Jake, just sat in silence for a bit before putting the game on. She started to pace up and down whilst the coffee machine boiled. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She knew he must have something to say.

'Greg just ask me please,' she said, standing and looking at him from the kitchen.

'Don't know what you're talking about.' He said, flatly, hitting a button on his control.

'I can't stand you not saying anything like it never happened.'

'What are you talking about?' Greg asked, pressing a different button twice.

'You saw me with Rick and the kid.'

Greg stopped hitting buttons but didn't take his eyes off the screen. The drug dealer character carried on shooting until the game played a tune of defeat and Greg had lost the game. He sighed and looked at her.

'O.k., if you want to tell me, come and tell me,' he said, turning off the TV and putting the controller down.

Harriet took a deep breath and went and sat by him on the sofa. She sat to attention almost, on the edge of her seat. Greg looked at her calmly. Maybe he didn't feel that this was his business, she realised.

'What would you like to know?' she asked.

'Whatever you want to tell me but if you're going to tell me you might as well tell me everything but it's up to you.' Greg replied, with a small smile that broke the ice for her a little.

'Ok, Rick and I were involved during my year as a DNA tech and I fell pregnant. Due to department politics we shouldn't really have been seeing each other.' Harriet began.

'Department politics?' Greg repeated, puzzled.

'He was my supervisor.' Harriet explained.

Greg raised an eyebrow and smiled cheekily as if to imply that he was shocked that she would do that.

'Grow up,' she said with a smile and carried on with the story. 'Anyway, we split up, I gave birth and I left the baby with Rick. Then I started my training as an investigator and three years later here I am. You know the rest.'

'So you have a three year old son, and still managed to make it to a CSI III in the space of three years. How did you fit it all in?' Greg said, as if trying to confirm.

'I gave the baby to Rick, I never wanted to be a parent especially not with someone I hadn't been seeing that long. I started training as an investigator straight after I gave birth so it wasn't that difficult' Harriet said, quietly, afraid of what Greg might think of her.

'So you're not involved in his life at all? He seemed quite comfortable with you.' Greg said. She couldn't detect any opinion in his voice.

'As he got a little older, Rick encouraged me to be involved but I just take him out on a Saturday for an hour, I've never really been a mother to him. Rick has spoken to him about me so I guess that's why it's not weird for the child at all.' Harriet put her head in her hands. 'You must think I'm a complete bitch.'

* * *

Greg put a hand on her shoulder. He didn't know what he thought; he still needed time for this to sink in. What he did know was that, although it seemed strange that she didn't want anything to do with her own child, his feelings for her were still strong. He kept noticing her mannerisms, the things she did when she felt stressed which was a lot of the time he noticed. She seemed to be carrying a lot of guilt on her shoulders. There was something else behind her exterior which he had already seen a little of when she told him about her mother. Then he had seen a little of what made her who she was, more than just a professional workaholic with an unhealthy interest in insects, a female Grissom if you will. He had seen that she was just a human and needed someone to be there. He found himself wishing he were that person.

'I don't think you're a bitch at all,' he said.

Harriet looked up at him; her eyes were shining with tears that looked like they had been preparing to fall but had been discouraged by his words. He swore his heart skipped a beat. He just wanted to hold her and make her feel better and though that wasn't beyond the realms of friendship he decided against it.

'You don't?' she said.

'No, I admit I don't understand it but you must have had your reasons for making that decision. He seems like a happy kid from what I saw,' Greg said.

'I can't explain it. I just never wanted to have him and the further on the pregnancy got, the stronger I felt that I didn't want it.' She said.

Greg nodded. He could sense that she wasn't lying. She hadn't once mentioned her son by his name, nor had she referred to him as her baby. The baby, that's what she had said. She didn't seem to be denying that he was her son but she certainly wasn't pretending she had a bond with him.

'So you're not with Rick?' he asked at last.

He didn't know why he'd asked. She had already explained that they'd split up. Did he really need confirmation that she was single? It wasn't like he was planning on trying anything with her, not now. Despite feeling close to her and wanting to get her to open up, be there for her, he didn't feel like a relationship was the best idea right now. It was probably the last thing she had in mind as well. He was under no illusions.

'No, all the feelings I had for him went when I realized I didn't want to be the mother of his child,' Harriet replied. 'I don't know why.'

'Did you love him?' Greg asked and wished he hadn't, it wasn't relevant and he might have inadvertently exposed his feelings.

'Yes I did. He is a wonderful man, never did wrong by me. Even now, he still tries to get through to me,' she said.

Greg nodded, feeling his stomach sink. Something told him there was still chemistry between Harriet and her child's father. She was a complicated person; he knew that, maybe the thing was that she didn't need to be. Being an intelligent person, she obviously thought everything through and it probably seemed logical to her but Greg still couldn't get his head around the fact she felt no bond towards her son.

* * *

Harriet felt sick. She didn't like hearing out loud what she had done. Carrying a child for nine months, giving birth and then walking away without a second thought was an awful thing to do. She had felt awful afterwards but still didn't want to be a mother to the baby. Greg sat looking at her, not saying anything. She wished he would, this was so awkward. He said he didn't think badly of her but she didn't believe him. She had made a lot of mistakes in her life. Moving to Las Vegas had felt like the one positive thing she had done in a long time. Probably since the time she studied for her masters degree at the same time as completing her final year of her undergraduate degree. Maybe work had come first too many times.

There was a knock at the door. A welcome distraction for her, at least this would break up the conversation. Greg got up to answer it, walking quietly through the living area to the door. Harriet ran a hand through her hair and then got up to return to the coffee she had been making in the kitchen. She stopped dead, halfway between the sofa and the kitchen when she saw Greg close the door.

He was holding a large cardboard box. It was what she had asked for; she couldn't believe Rick had actually got it for her. The thing that shocked her most was the small child standing next to Greg's leg, teddy bear under one arm, a small bag in his other hand.

'Looks like I've got myself another room mate,' Greg said, looking very unsure about it but trying to keep the positive goofy smile, which he used so often, firmly in place.

* * *

_A/N - yet another twist. Like I said, I didn't have any plans for this story I just wrote it and got carried away which is probably why it is getting a little bit cheesy and over dramatic. Hopefully I have explained a bit more about Harriet's character. There is some more coming up soon. _


	16. Mummy Dearest

_A/N - there are some made up words in the beginning of this chapter because Harriet's son can't explain a word properly but the real word is explained straight after so it will make sense._

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen – Mummy Dearest. **

Harriet stood, taking in the tableaux before her for a second. There didn't seem to be any sign of Rick anywhere, suggesting he was expecting her to take care of the child. She walked over to Greg and took the box from him, then moved to the sofa and sat down with it.

'Harriet?' Greg said, quietly. 'What about him?'

She looked up at them again. They were still standing in front of the door staring at her. Looking back at the box, it occurred to her that perhaps in her surprise she had given priority to the wrong thing.

'I'm sorry,' she said at last. 'Come and sit over here.'

'Me?' Greg asked.

'No, him,' Harriet nodded at the little boy.

Greg took the bag from him and gave him a little nudge forward. He smiled and ran to the sofa, jumping onto the cushions and sitting beside her. Harriet wasn't sure what to do. She had taken him for days out before but in reality knew very little about him.

'Hello mummy,' he said, smiling innocently at her.

'Hi, how are you doing?' she replied.

'I'm o.k. Daddy says I'm staying with you now.'

'Did he? For how long?'

The boy thought for a moment, scrunching his eyebrows together and looking up towards the ceiling.

'Til you get your postinilities,' he said at last.

'My what? I don't understand,' Harriet said, looking to Greg pleadingly for assistance.

Greg shrugged 'sorry, I've no idea.' He said.

The boy sighed 'Daddy says I have to stay here because you have to face your ponsibilities …no that's not right…' the little boy looked to Greg as well.

'Responsibilities?' Greg suggested.

The little boy got excited. 'Yeah, that's what I said, postibilities.'

Harriet laughed at him. He had tried to say the word three times, each with a completely different pronunciation and none had been right. He smiled at her, baring tiny rows of milk teeth.

'So has Daddy gone home?' she asked.

'Yep, says I'm staying here and that you can't make me go away because you're my mummy,' he said.

Harriet looked at Greg apologetically, he hadn't asked for any of this and it was his apartment. He just shrugged at her and grinned, clearly finding this interesting or amusing or both. She felt a small hand touch hers. Looking down she came face to face with a worried looking pair of brown eyes.

'You're not going to make me go away are you?' he asked.

'No of course I'm not,' Harriet said, patting her lap. 'Come here.'

He climbed up onto her knee. This felt awkward for her but for some reason she felt she needed to comfort him. She knew he must be confused, not having a mother around and she didn't want him to think it was his fault. Having said that, she only let him sit there for a minute or two before suggesting that he have something to eat.

* * *

Greg couldn't help being slightly amused by this. He knew she had her issues with being this kid's mom but he was interested to know what was going to happen. Something told him this could only be a positive thing. They'd had some trying times this week, mostly because of him trying to pull himself back together after the worst case he'd ever had. Having this child around might give them both something positive to focus on. Plus he was amused to see how alike mother and child were despite not having spent that much time together.

Harriet had managed to find something to feed him, which seemed to take forever. Every option she gave him, he wasn't interested in. Greg also found it highly amusing when she was trying to explain why he couldn't have any of the 'blackcurrant', aka red wine, in Greg's fridge.

'That's not blackcurrant. That's a special drink for grown ups.' She said.

'Special, what for?' was the three year olds reply.

'It makes kids poorly, it makes grown ups poorly too but they drink it anyway,' she had tried to continue explaining but failed miserably.

'Grown ups do some stupid things why drink it if it makes you poorly?'

'Never mind.'

Greg decided to offer to watch the boy whilst Harriet went to bed. They were both used to sleeping for most of the daytime but obviously the little one wasn't. Besides, Greg liked being around kids, being a slightly older version of one himself.

'Are you sure?' Harriet said, quietly.

'Absolutely, we'll be fine.'

'O.k. If you need me just wake me up. I'm sorry about all this.' She said.

'It's fine, everything will be all right you're already doing really well.' Greg said.

'I am?'

'Yeah but there's one thing before you go to bed.'

'What's that?'

'His name is Jake, trying using it once in a while.'

Harriet gave him a weak half smile that suggested to him that she hadn't realised how little she was acknowledging her son properly. She nodded and went into her room. Greg turned to Jake who was sitting at the breakfast bar, legs dangling over the stool he was sitting on as he ate a sandwich.

'So, Jake, do you want to play some video games or watch a movie?' he asked.

'Moo hee!' was the enthusiastic, baloney muffled response.

'O.k., you eat up and I'll find us one to watch. I'm Greg by the way.' He said, uncomfortably, realising the child probably had no idea who he was.

Jake just smiled and nodded his head up and down so fast his eyes looked like they were in his chin. Greg smiled to himself and began searching his DVD collection for something child-friendly.

* * *

_A/N - awww how cute is Greg? Sorry, on with the story. _


	17. Lab Rat Junior

**Chapter Seventeen – Lab Rat Junior.**

'Did I just lose a few years of my life or are you guys incredibly late for work?' Nick quipped as Harriet and Greg entered the break room at the beginning of the shift.

She realised they must have looked like a little family. She was carrying the box Rick had sent that she hadn't looked through yet whilst Greg was carefully carrying a sleeping Jake in his arms. Nick really needed to work on his jokes though.

'Keep it down, will you?' Greg said. 'You'll wake him up.'

Nick put his hands in the air in mock defence. 'Ooh sorry pops.'

Greg rolled his eyes and carefully laid Jake down on the break room sofa.

'So what's going on?' Sara asked, smiling at Catherine who was pulling a face that suggested Jake was making her broody!

Grissom entered the break room in a hurry before Harriet had a chance to explain anything.

'O.k. team, we are very busy tonight; I'm knee deep in a fascinating case, not that I should enjoy murder but anyway. Here are your assignments – Nick and Greg you have a robbery at the four-leaf casino, Warrick you can go solo on this assault, Catherine you have some suspicious remains out in the desert. Sara you're with me and _where did that come from_?' Grissom's voice rose in surprise as he spotted the sleeping child on the sofa.

It wasn't like him to raise his voice except when he was really angry but today he seemed to be running off a lot of adrenaline and probably some extra caffeine too. Harriet raised her hand.

'Umm, he's with me, he's my…' she hesitated a moment, afraid of the reaction she knew she would get. 'He's my son. I'm sorry, it's all been very last minute I couldn't get childcare sorted for tonight so he's going to have to stay in here.'

Nick, Sara, Warrick and Catherine just stared at her in disbelief, open-mouthed. They had only known her a few weeks but this was still a surprise. Grissom didn't respond straight away suggesting he too was pretty stunned.

'The crime lab isn't really a safe place for a child, Hattie,' he said, finally finding his voice. 'But I suppose I will have to let it slide for today as long as it's not going to interrupt with your work.'

'Thanks Gris, it won't,' she said.

'If the rest of you have finished your goldfish impressions, perhaps we can get to work,' he said, making a rare joke.

Grissom left the break room, followed quickly by Sara. The other three looked at each other, then at Harriet before getting up and leaving the room also, Nick instructing Greg to be as quick as he could.

'That could have gone worse,' Harriet said.

'Don't worry, it'll be fine. Wait until everyone comes on their break, then you'll get the twenty questions,' Greg smiled.

'You think this is hilarious don't you?' Harriet said, trying not to smile back at him.

'Never, I am a very mature person, take everything seriously.'

'Yeah right, see you later,'

Greg winked at her and left the break room, heading off after Nick. Harriet looked at Jake who was still fast asleep. She took a piece of paper and a pen that were lying on the table and wrote on it.

_If he wakes up come and get me._

_Hattie._

* * *

Greg had hoped that being forced into taking care of Jake might have made Harriet want to take on the role of mother and after this morning when she had fed and spoken to her son, he thought that it was a sign. However, this evening when she had started to get ready for work, she was reluctant again. Jake was tired and wanted to sit with her but she refused, the task then fell to Greg who had ended up making a bed up on the sofa for him until it was time to go to work. Somehow he had ended up carrying him to the car, mainly because Harriet had been extremely eager to drive tonight as well as being rather overprotective of that stupid cardboard box that had arrived with Jake. Perhaps he could talk to her tonight and try and encourage her to not be afraid of being around Jake.

'Earth to Greg.' Nick was saying, waving a hand in his face. 'We're here.'

Greg turned his head quickly towards his colleague, pulling a muscle in his neck as he did so.

'Ouch. Sorry Nick, I was thinking,' he said.

'That can't be good,' Nick joked 'I bet you were thinking about our Miss Charles.'

'Actually I was but not in the way you think,' Greg said, with a smile.

'And what was I thinking?' Nick asked, innocently as he got out of the car.

'You were thinking I was picturing her naked or something,' Greg said after also getting out of the car and following him to the trunk.

'Were you?'

'No!' Greg snapped, embarrassed taking his kit out of the trunk.

'You do like her though don't you?' Nick asked.

Greg went quiet, he did like her and Nick had been right the previous day but he didn't know if he wanted to admit it to anyone yet. As it turned out, his silent musing was confirmation enough for Nick who smiled knowingly at him and walked into the crime scene.

* * *

Three hours later…

Harriet was in a good mood, not only had she worked like a trouper on all of the evidence she had been given tonight but Grissom had finally made use of her database _and_ had given it a good review. The case he was working on had turned up some interesting samples which it turned out were from an insect he hadn't been able to identify. She wasn't sure whether he had actually thought that it could be a British variety or was just coming to her as a last resort. Turned out it was on her database and the suspect was apprehended, an entomologist also, with a sideline interest in murder it seemed. The sample, which had been found on the victim, tied the suspect to the scene and also the murder. She was pleased that she had been of some more use in a case other than analysing blood and other bodily fluids.

She was putting some samples back into the freezer when she heard footsteps. She looked behind her but couldn't see anyone. Deciding that she was hearing things, she continued to put the samples into storage.

'Mummy,'

Harriet sat up straight and turned around. It was Jake, he had been at the door but him being rather short and her sitting at a strange angle, she hadn't seen him straight away.

There wasn't anyone else around so he must have found her himself.

'Hello Jake,' she said at last, remembering Greg's request to acknowledge her son properly. 'What are you doing down here?'

'I had a bad dream,' he said, sadly.

'Aww you poor thing,' she said, feeling sorry for him. 'It's ok, its only a dream, it can't hurt you.'

'Can I have a cuddle?' he asked.

Harriet swept him up without hesitating and put him on her knee, enveloping him in a hug. Jake put his little arms around her neck and squeezed back. Realising what she was doing, Harriet considered letting him go but forced herself not to. The hug had been almost spontaneous. If he hadn't asked for one she probably wouldn't have given him it but she didn't feel like there was anyway she could, or wanted, to refuse the request.

'I love you,' Jake said.

Harriet stiffened slightly and didn't reply straight away.

'Do you want to have a look in the microscope?' she asked, distracting him.

He turned around on her lap so he was facing the microscope.

'Yeah, cool,' he said, looking forward at it.

Harriet showed him where to look into the microscope and moved the dials so that it made things bigger and smaller. He had no idea what he was looking at but could see it being magnified and was fascinated by it. Harriet panicked when she suddenly realised she was letting her son look at a semen sample. That seemed slightly immoral to her so she took the slide out much to his disappointment.

'Aww I was looking at that,' he whined.

'How about you look at this instead,' Harriet said, pulling a hair from her head and placing it on a slide.

Jake looked into the microscope again and laughed loudly.

'Is that really your hair?' he asked.

'It certainly is,' Harriet smiled as she spoke.

'It looks really weird.'

'Aren't you a little young to be doing that?' a voice said.

'Greg!' Jake said, excitedly, looking up from the microscope.

'Hello, shouldn't you be asleep?' Greg said, walking into the lab and ruffling the boy's hair.

'I'm not tired,' Jake said and as if on cue, he did a really loud yawn.

'I believe ya, thousands wouldn't,' Greg laughed, and then looked at Harriet. 'Fancy a break?'

She nodded and took Jake down off her knee. Greg held his hand out and the little boy took it. Harriet got up and took Jakes other hand and the three walked down the corridor to the break room, once again looking like a small family.

* * *

'Jake, lay down,' Harriet ordered, fluffing the cushion she had put underneath his head and covering him with the jacket Greg had volunteered earlier when they had first arrived at work.

'I'm not tired,' he whined, his eyes half open.

'Yes you are' Harriet said, stroking his hair away from his eyes. 'Now close your eyes and go to sleep.'

As if realising he was not going to win, Jake closed his eyes. Greg smiled to himself, pleased that Harriet was starting to get into the whole mother thing. He wouldn't say anything yet though, he wasn't sure she knew she was doing it. Greg took two coffees over and sat beside her on the other sofa, giving her a cup.

'Thanks,' she said, taking a sip and looking at the boy who was now starting to sleep soundly.

Greg felt an overwhelming sense of pride; he could see that Harriet was starting to get the hang of it, even feeling something towards the child. Again he wouldn't say anything yet, he didn't want to put her off.

'So, is lab rat junior after your job now then?' Greg asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

Harriet smiled broadly and turned to Greg. 'I don't think so, they don't make lab coats small enough and his only comment was that my hair sample looked weird.'

Greg laughed. 'You took a sample of your own hair?'

'Yeah, originally he was looking at a slide that was already in there but when I realised what it was, I thought I'd better change it,' Harriet said, smiling again.

She has a really pretty smile, Greg thought, I never noticed before.

'What was it?' Greg asked.

'A semen sample,' Harriet said, trying to suppress a laugh. 'He didn't know any better but I thought it was a bit perverse.'

Greg smirked and looked at her, trying not to laugh. She smiled back and bit her bottom lip. He had never seen that before. It was cute.

'So you had a good time then?' Greg asked, still smirking.

* * *

Harriet looked at Greg. His eyes were twinkling and he looked like he found this all very funny. She hadn't noticed before but there was something impish and childlike about his smile. It was quite endearing in a way. Before they had become friends, she had mistaken it for arrogance but now she saw it was a boyish charm he had. If she was honest she found it quite cute. What are you thinking? Answer his question.

'I don't know, this is still weird for me,' she said.

* * *

Greg was disappointed. She was making progress; he knew it so why did she try so hard to dismiss it.

'Harriet, I know I can't possibly understand how you feel,' he said, growing serious. 'But is it really so hard to try and be his mom?'

'You sound like Rick,' she replied.

'Don't change the subject,' Greg said, sternly.

'I'll try and explain but it'll sound lame. I was scared when I found out I was pregnant, I was barely out of Uni, in my early twenties. I had no idea how to be a mother or whether I wanted to be a mother. Rick was ten years older than me so I figured he was better qualified.' Harriet said.

'You're right that is lame,' Greg said, half-playfully. 'Basically you talked yourself out of being a mother because you were scared you couldn't do it?'

'No, I knew I couldn't do it. I was still a kid myself. I didn't want him to have a bad mother.'

'So he's better off with no mother at all?'

'Exactly.'

'Harriet, to say you're a highly intelligent person, that is really dumb.' Greg said.

He said this even though he knew it made sense in her head. All her life she had been an achiever, knew how to pass exams, get the right grade but when it came to something she couldn't predict or control, she had avoided it. That was the conclusion Greg had come to anyway.

'I don't expect you to understand,' Harriet said.

'There is no way on earth you would have been a bad mother,' Greg said suddenly.

Harriet looked at him and he could see that she was flattered. He realised in that moment that he really cared for her. He knew he had feelings for her but this was way beyond a crush. It wasn't a meaningless sexual attraction. He felt a real connection to her like he wanted what he said to mean something to her, to be special. Man, get a grip he told himself.

* * *

Harriet couldn't believe what he had just said but the seriousness in his eyes and the sincerity in his voice flattered her. She wasn't really sure what evidence he was basing this assumption on but she wished someone had told her this before she had given birth. But maybe then things wouldn't have turned out the way they did and she would never have met Greg. With that thought, she realised she couldn't imagine not knowing Greg. Despite initial appearances, he had proved himself to be caring, fun and intelligent. Not many men shared those kinds of traits. .

'You're serious aren't you?' she said at last.

'I've seen the way you've been with him tonight and I think you're doing an incredible job,' Greg said, smiling.

Harriet looked at Jake and smiled to herself. He was sleeping deeply now, oblivious to the conversation.

'I guess I didn't do so bad,' she said. 'I got him to sleep anyway.'

Greg raised his eyebrows as if to say 'see, I told you so' and smiled widely at her. Harriet felt herself blush a little and broke eye contact with him. What was with her today? She felt like she didn't ever want this break to end, like she could sit here forever with him drinking his coffee and smiling like that at her. She looked back up at him and caught his gaze.

* * *

Greg was so relieved. He felt like he had got through to her in some way. She was looking at her son with what seemed to be a hint of pride. And she was admitting she felt like tonight had gone well, having got Jake to go to sleep. She was looking at him. He wanted to speak but felt like his voice was stuck in his throat. He shifted in his seat a little, then wished he hadn't, realising that they were now sat even closer together.

* * *

Harriet was sure she hadn't exhaled for a long time. He was sitting so closely to her and she liked feeling his arm against hers. The conversation seemed to have dried up but she couldn't think of anything to say. She couldn't be feeling this way, not now she had realised that she might be able to make a go of things as a mother. She looked down for a second; her hair fell covering one side of her face. How annoying, she usually wore it up but hadn't had time to do it today. Her heart started to thump in her chest as she felt Greg move the hair back away from her face.

* * *

There was no denying now that he was attracted to her. When her hair fell in front of her face, he instinctively moved it back out of the way. Immediately he felt awkward. They had hugged each other before but he wasn't sure that they had been friends long enough for him to justify being this tactile. How would he explain this? She wasn't asking for an explanation, he realised, as she lifted her head and glanced up at him. With his hand still resting on her cheek, he realised this would soon get awkward and he really should move his hand but instead he found himself moving his face closer to hers. He was going to kiss her. This could all be a huge mistake. His heart was pounding he was so nervous.

* * *

_A/N - I know, I know I said this was going to be a different 'new girl in the lab' story and it was to start with. Besides it's not like it was love at first sight. I would apologise for how incredibly cheesy this chapter is but be honest, who doesn't mind a bit of cheesey romance? Actually please don't answer that. Hope you are still enjoying the story so far. As I am so organised, you don't have to wait ages if you want to know what happens next - just click on to the next chapter. _


	18. Falling

**Chapter Eighteen – Falling **

'Greg!' Nick burst through the break room door.

Greg's hand dropped immediately from her face and he spun around almost as fast, spilling coffee on the floor. Harriet turned her head away and looked at her son. There was no doubt about what had just nearly happened and she couldn't get it out of her head. She took a deep breath and turned to listen to what Nick was saying.

'We've got a hit from trace, we need to go bring in Salvatore now,' Nick was saying, excitedly.

'Yeah sure,' Greg said, jumping up and putting his coffee cup on the table.

He dashed towards the door to follow Nick, then stopped for a second and turned to look back at Harriet. His face was unreadable like he wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed or regretful.

Greg's heart was beating like a samba drummer on speed but not because he was about to kiss anyone. Nick had scared the life out of him, both because he had come bursting through the door and because he wasn't sure how much Nick had seen. He took in what the CSI said and quickly followed him, turning briefly to look at Harriet. He realised now that he had seriously wanted to kiss her and wished that he hadn't been interrupted but was also unsure of what the repercussions might be later.

* * *

A few days later…

Harriet kept looking at him as he slept beside her. She was exhausted, hadn't had much sleep but she didn't mind. Watching as he breathed in and out in the depths of sleep, her heart skipped a beat. He was wonderful, so perfect. She couldn't imagine what her life had been like before this. They had only been together properly for a few days but she had fallen in love with him at last. How could she have ever doubted her feelings for him?

She stroked his hair as he slept and whispered 'I love you.'

He stirred a little and opened his beautiful brown eyes, looking tiredly at her. He smiled in his childish way.

'Mummy, I need the toilet,' he said.

'O.k., but be quiet you don't want to wake Greg up,' Harriet said as the little boy jumped out of bed.

She got up, put her dressing gown on and followed him to Greg's room. Carefully, she opened the door and they both tiptoed in. It was extremely dark as the curtains were drawn probably to keep the light out whilst he tried to sleep during the day. If only he'd done that the day he got a flash of me, Harriet thought, now amused by the embarrassing memory.

Jake giggled, obviously finding it funny that they were having to tiptoe. Harriet glanced at the bed and saw a Greg shaped lump in the blankets. He was still sleeping.

'Shh, Jake,' she said as quietly as possible.

Jake clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from giggling and they continued their silent ballet style walk to the bathroom. Harriet turned the handle and opened the door, walking in with Jake in front.

'Aaaaah!' Harriet squealed in surprise.

'Aaaaah!' was the simultaneous response from Greg who appeared to have been getting dried in the bathroom following his shower.

'Get out the way I need a wee!' Jake ordered as Greg quickly covered himself back up with his towel.

Jake pushed past Greg, totally unfazed by his the nakedness of the man and proceeded to lift the lid and take a pee. Harriet blushed and looked away from Greg for a moment. The Greg shaped lump in the blankets must have just been the blankets. Then, realising how much fun she could have at work with this, she turned back to him, a sly grin creeping across her face. Greg seemed to realise what she was thinking and if his face could have looked anymore dismayed than it already did then it probably would have done.

'Mummy, mummy, can I have something to eat now?' Jake was tugging on the leg of her pyjama bottoms.

Harriet crouched down to him and ruffled his hair affectionately. She couldn't believe how quickly it had taken her to bond with him although she wasn't ready to admit it to anyone else yet. She had freaked herself out earlier when she had woken up and told him she loved him even though he was asleep and couldn't hear her. It was scary and she was still afraid to admit any feelings for him although she realised she had crossed a line now that would be impossible to return over.

'Of course you can, what will it be today sweetie pie?' she asked, smiling at her son.

'I want bacon and fruit loops!' he squealed.

'In the same bowl?' Harriet asked, pulling a face.

'Yeah!' Jake jumped up and down, laughing.

'Come on you idiot let's see what we can find,' she said, laughing at him.

She grabbed him quickly and picked him up doing a mock evil genius laugh.

'Ha ha, I've got you now, and you can't escape,' she said, carrying him out of the room with him protesting and trying to get free.

* * *

Greg could not believe what had just happened. He was quite happily in the middle of getting dried when they had to come bursting into the room. He couldn't remember a time when he had been more embarrassed, even Sara telling Mia how old he was when he lost his virginity wasn't as embarrassing as being caught stark naked in his bathroom. Jake hadn't been bothered but he swore Harriet had got a good flash of everything. And then she had given him that look which could only mean she was plotting a perhaps well deserved revenge on him when they got to work.

He had been worrying immensely about it until he saw the interaction between Harriet and Jake. Five days ago, that would never have happened. In the daytime after work she had been staying up and spending time with him, going to bed later so she wasn't getting much sleep but she had seemed happier, had even taken him out to the diner round the corner from the lab.

Once or twice, Greg had stayed up for a bit with them but he didn't find a lack of sleep as easy to cope with as Harriet and by the second day, he had started to leave her and Jake to do their own thing whilst he slept.

Harriet hadn't really talked about what they did during the day but sometimes Jake would fill him in. He was only three years old but seemed to find it so easy to talk to Greg despite only knowing him for a short time and he was quite articulate for his age too. Must get that from his mother, Greg had thought.

He hadn't mentioned the near-kiss to Harriet and likewise she hadn't said a word about it either. Maybe he had been mistaken in thinking that she had known what he had nearly done. Just because he knew he was about to kiss her, didn't mean she had thought that. She could have just thought he was being weird.

Not that he minded not having to talk about it and it was a bit of a relief that she didn't know how he felt. Besides he was glad that she was bonding with her son and he could see the difference in the way she acted towards Jake, like she was enjoying spending time with him. She looked proud of him, perhaps even loved him. It was certainly clear by the way she had taken Jake to get some food. She had seemed oblivious to Greg as she scooped her son into her arms, playfully, and left the bathroom. If he was honest, he was ever so slightly jealous that he wasn't getting as much time with her. But maybe that was just his disappointment at the realisation that she probably felt nothing more than friendship for him.

* * *

_A/N - I thought it was time for a little bit more humour judging by how angsty things got in the previous few chapters. Hope that was entertaining for everyone reading this. Also, I thoughtI would be a little mean by trying to make everyone think Harriet was talking to Greg at the beginning and not Jake. I just hope it worked. Onwards and upwards..._


	19. Revenge Is Sweet

**Chapter Nineteen – Revenge is sweet. **

Harriet walked happily into the break room at the start of her shift, smiling at Sara who was sitting reading a crime novel on the sofa. Sara smiled back, curiously and put the book down.

'Whose bed did you wake up in this morning?' Sara said, cheekily.

'My own!' Harriet said, shocked and embarrassed at the accusation although secretly she wouldn't have minded if her answer had been Greg's bed.

She scolded herself for thinking so rudely and proceeded to get a mug of coffee as in a speak-of-the-devil moment, Greg appeared in the doorway. He had been in the men's locker room putting his stuff away. He looked pale and out of breath.

'What's wrong with you?' Sara asked.

'I've just had the most horrible experience,' Greg said, dramatically, still panting as he slumped onto a chair at the table.

'What do you mean- did someone see you naked?' Harriet asked, turning to him with a smirk on her face.

Greg's eyes widened and he looked like he wanted to kill her. Today was going to be such fun, she thought, as he looked at her for a second or two and then looked back at Sara who was completely oblivious.

'I was in the locker room getting ready for shift when I felt something tickling my leg and I looked down and it was…' Greg stopped and shuddered as if cringing at the memory.

'It was…?' Sara prompted.

'Monty,' Greg said, lifting his hands up and wriggling his fingers as he gave another shudder, looking like he was imitating the movement of spider's legs.

'Who?' Sara asked.

'The tarantula in my lab,' Harriet informed her.

'You have a tarantula in your lab?' Sara repeated.

'Its been there for nearly a month,' Harriet said in disbelief.'Greg's not his biggest fan.'

Sara smiled at Greg. 'Aww poor Greggo's scared of spiders?' she said, playfully.

Harriet felt a pang of jealously as she watched Greg look back at Sara. He had that bashful, flirty look in his eyes and Sara seemed to be looking flirtingly back at him. She hadn't realised there was a chemistry between the two CSI's but she could see it now. Disappointed wasn't the word. What was she thinking? She didn't like him that much anyway, did she?

'I've got to go,' Harriet said hurriedly and rushed out of the room towards her lab, finding that Monty was back in his tank. That must have been the other part of Greg's harrowing experience – having to put the spider back.

She smiled to herself, forgetting her dark mood at realising nothing was ever going to happen between her and Greg. Did she even want it to happen? She hadn't thought she had that much of a thing for him but there was something about him that she couldn't get off her mind.

In an attempt to take her mind off being attracted to Greg, she spent the next couple of hours tormenting him in the same way he had a few weeks previously after her own bath towel incident. Every time she went to see him or he came to her, she made an ambiguous comment to him regarding sizes. Her favourite one was when he and Nick came to see her with a sample they had found and needed identifying.

Harriet placed the evidence onto a slide and put it under the microscope. After a couple of seconds she had identified it.

'It's a diamond,' she said.

'A diamond?' Nick repeated, taking a look for himself. 'But it's tiny.'

'Looks can be deceiving,' Harriet quipped. 'I've heard size doesn't matter, isn't that so Greg?'

She tried hard to suppress a laugh at that one as she saw the look on Greg's face. Nick looked up from the microscope and looked at the two of them.

'You are a sad, sad little woman,' Greg said, half seriously.

'I do my best,' Harriet smiled sweetly.

'Am I missing something here? Is there something going on between you two?' Nick asked.

'No!' Harriet and Greg said quickly at the same time.

She looked at him, feeling her face go red. He glanced at her for a moment, catching her eye and then breaking away as Grissom came jogging down the corridor. Their supervisor hadn't taken a sudden interest in keeping fit although the sight of him in a tracksuit and a sweatband would be disturbingly funny but judging by the look on his face, something was seriously wrong.

'Greg I need to speak with you now,' Grissom said, panting, trying to get his breath back.

'Sure Griss, what's up?' Greg replied.

Grissom looked at Harriet in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. Something was wrong and there was an ominous vibe about it.

'Privately please Greg,' Grissom said, quietly.

Harriet watched, puzzled, as Grissom and Greg walked out of the lab and a little way down the corridor. She watched Greg's face change as his supervisor spoke. She recognised that change in his face, she remembered it from the phone call he had received telling him that Mikey Richardson had died. Just as she was wondering what could possibly be the problem, her stomach sank as she saw Greg look at her briefly. Something terrible had happened and it was about to affect her. Rick had looked at her in the same way right before he'd told her they'd found her mother's body. She wasn't about to sit here and let them talk about her. She got up from her seat and began walking out towards them.

* * *

Greg looked at Harriet, his heart heavy with the news he had just been told. 

'Don't look at her,' Grissom said. 'I don't want you to panic her.'

'Too late,' Greg said, as he looked away 'She's coming over here now.'

He felt weak as she reached them and began to ask what was going on and if it was something to do with her. Greg really didn't want to have to be the one to tell her this. He looked to Grissom for support who nodded and took Harriet to his office.

Greg didn't follow them. Instead, he watched as they went down to the end of the corridor into Grissom's room. Being told bad news in a room full of preserved bug corpses could hardly soften the blow, Greg thought, but she definitely needed sitting down for this one. He couldn't understand how he had managed to stay standing himself as Grissom had relayed it to him.

'Brass had a call out to a disturbance, it turns out it was your apartment.'

'What kind of disturbance?' Greg had said back, shocked.

'Neighbours said they heard screaming and crying. Brass found Emily unconscious on the living room floor with head injuries, there was no sign of Jake,'

Greg had felt sick; the babysitter was in hospital and Harriet's child was missing. Had he run away, scared by the attacker, or had he been taken? What would Harriet say? She had only just begun to form a bond with Jake; he couldn't bear the thought of the guilt she would feel if something happened to him. That was when he had looked across at her and he knew from the look he got back that she knew something was wrong.

He stood helplessly as he saw Harriet get up from the chair in Grissom's office and run back down the corridor towards him. She had a hand to her mouth and tears in her eyes as he watched her run into the ladies locker room. Grissom looked at him from his office, his face was blank. Greg hung his head for a moment and went after Harriet.

* * *

_A/N - I don't know, I'm back to the angst again. I can't help it, I like a bit of drama. Maybe I'm trying to make up for my rather poor jokes. Anyway thank you again for reading this far and congratulations if you are still awake. Chapter Twenty beckons..._


	20. A Bitter Aftertaste

**Chapter twenty – A Bitter Aftertaste. **

Harriet felt a sharp pain as she felt her stomach spasm and she retched but nothing came out. She rested her forehead against the cold enamel of the toilet bowl and exhaled a long shaky breath. How could this be happening? There was no way Jake had just run away, he had to have been taken by someone. But why? What had she done to deserve this? Tears fell drop by drop from her eyes and she shook as sob after sob came.

'Harriet?' she heard someone say quietly.

She looked up and saw the blurred outline of Greg. He knelt down in front of her and reached for her hand. His face was still a bit of a blur due to the tears in her eyes but she guessed what he must have been thinking.

'You think I deserve this don't you?' Harriet said, her voice quivering as she tried to regain a regular breathing pattern between sobs.

'No I don't, absolutely not,' Greg said, taking her other hand and running his thumbs over the back of them both, affectionately.

'Well I do,' Harriet said, bursting into tears again. 'I've been the world's worst mother and now someone's trying to make me pay for it.'

'That is not true, there is no excuse for this and we don't know what's happened yet,' Greg said, gently.

'I deserve whatever is coming to me but why do they have to take it out on Jake. He's done nothing wrong, it's me who needs punishing.' Harriet cried, hanging her head and sobbing hysterically.

She was so confused and felt completely helpless. Some evil person had taken her son and she didn't know why but somehow she felt she was to blame, had something to do with this. She felt like she was about to dissolve into more sobs when Greg shouted at her and shocked her to her senses.

'For crying out loud Harriet, stop being so selfish,' he shouted. 'You're not the one who's missing here, it's Jake. He's the one we need to be focussing on not you and your stupid guilt!'

Harriet stopped sobbing and stared at him. How could he say that? Jake was her son, if she had taken better care of him and been a more deserving mother this would never have happened. It was bad karma.

'How can you say that?' Harriet said breathlessly.

'You're not thinking of him, you're sitting here with your head down the toilet feeling sorry for yourself, you need to get yourself together and help us find him,' Greg snapped.

She considered this for a moment. Maybe he was right, she certainly wasn't doing anything useful sitting here but his tone hurt her. He had never seemed so mean and insensitive. Of course she cared about Jake, she didn't want anything to happen to him but how could Greg accuse her of being selfish?

'But…he's my baby,' Harriet protested as she felt the tears and the shuddering sobs return.

Greg wrapped his arms around her and held her close; the warmth of his body against hers was mildly comforting despite the situation. She knew she wouldn't want anyone else here with her no matter how angry she was with him.

* * *

He hated speaking to her so bitterly but he needed to say it. He was hoping it would bring her to her senses. There was no way he truly believed she was selfish. She felt guilty about a lot of things, he knew that, but he felt the best thing to do was be cruel to be kind and try and put things into perspective. As he hugged her, he felt like crying himself. He was fond of the little boy and even more attached to Harriet, he hated the idea that she was this heartbroken.

'I can't lose him Greg, I really can't' Harriet said, wiping her eyes and appearing to try and regain some strength as she pulled away from him. Greg felt a pang of empathy and love for her. He had to help her however he could.

'I know you can't, let's go see what we can find out,' he suggested, wiping a stray tear from her face.

'They'll never let me near the crime scene, I'm involved,' she said.

'They let you do your mom's case didn't they,' Greg said, immediately feeling like a fool when he realised that case had been a murder. 'And this is not going to turn out like that, I promise.' He added in an attempt to reassure her that her son had not been killed.

He stood up and helped her to her feet. She was shaky at first but began to take a few deep breaths. Greg held her face in his hands and placed a kiss on her forehead. He didn't know why he'd done that, it was totally inappropriate but she didn't seem to notice. He put an arm around her shoulders and led her back out into the corridor.

* * *

_A/N - a short chapter there just an attempt to explain more about how Harriet thinks and develop the friendship between her and Greg a little to try and make any future romance less cheesy. Chapter Twenty One where are you...?_


	21. CSI Charles

**Chapter Twenty-One – CSI Charles. **

Harriet felt an acidic feeling in her throat as she ducked under the yellow police tape surrounding the front door and entered the apartment. After taking a moment to fight back any tears, she went into investigator mode, surprising herself at how easy she found it under the circumstances.

The coffee table by the sofa was overturned, the telephone strewn across the floor in pieces. Signs of a struggle, Emily's injuries were not an accident although she knew that was a practical impossibility anyway. Harriet walked carefully past the back of the sofa towards the end of the living room where her bedroom was. She spotted broken glass and a sticky substance on the floor. She motioned to Nick to take a look. Grissom had allowed her to attend the scene after Greg had explained about her previous job but had forbidden her from taking or processing any evidence herself. Greg had similar instructions and was watching from near the kitchen. Nick ran a swab through the substance and sniffed it.

'Smells like orange juice,' he said.

Harriet nodded, only half hearing him as she spotted the teddy bear lying near to her foot. Nick followed her gaze and then looked up at her, a glazed look in his eyes. She knew he didn't think this was a good sign.

'O.k.,' Harriet said. 'It looks like the attacker came in through the front door and attacked Emily there,' she indicated the broken telephone and overturned table. 'Jake must have been in our room, heard the noise and came to have a look, dropping his drink here,' she pointed to the broken glass on the floor and followed the route with her eyes from that spot to the spot where his teddy bear was lying.

There were some small orange juice footprints, which from the shape of them indicated that Jake had run barefoot away from the intruder, dropping his teddy bear in the process. She relayed this to Nick who nodded and took some photographs.

'Now what?' Greg said, having walked over to where the bear was. 'The trail ends there, I can't see any adult sized footprints around here.'

Harriet was looking at the trail again. Jakes footprints veered at one point close to the sofa. She looked at the last footprint and up to the back of the sofa.

'Nick, could you shine your torch over here please?' she asked.

He clicked it on and shone it over the area of sofa that she was looking at. There, clear as day (well, to an eagle eyed CSI anyway) were some red fibres. Nick took some tweezers and an envelope from his kit and extracted the fibres.

'The intruder must have brushed against the sofa as he grabbed Jake, ' Harriet said, shakily. 'Jake doesn't have any clothes that would shed a fibre that easily,'

'You sure you want to be here Hattie?' Nick asked.

'I'm fine, besides I think we're making progress,' she replied.

* * *

Greg never thought he would see police tape outside his own home. Nor had he thought he would find entering it so difficult, when he saw the mess by the sofa and a patch of blood which could only have been Emily's, on the floor, it hit home to him that Jake could be dead. He quickly shook that thought away as he watched how quickly Harriet assessed the scene; it was almost similar to watching Grissom calculate a crime. The way she looked everything over as if she was envisaging it happening right before her in a surreal ghostly kind of way. He knew he still had a lot to learn about investigating scenes but she seemed to think of places to look that he wouldn't have thought of on a first scan of the scene.

He was looking at the end of the footprint trail when he saw what looked like some blood spatter. Wary of panicking Harriet without due cause, he approached it himself to check. It was definitely blood. Looked like it had fallen from a straight height rather than an angle judging by the way there were only a couple of drops and they spiked out at the edges as blood did on impact from a vertical height.

'Nick, can you take a swab of this?' Greg asked, not wanting to draw Harriet's attention just yet.

'What have you got?' Nick asked, moving beside him, swab stick at the ready.

'Blood,' Greg said quietly but Harriet must have had exceptional hearing as she joined them immediately.

'Oh my god,' she said, gently.

'It's o.k, its only a few drops,' Nick said.

'Yeah, Jake probably bit the guy and it could be his blood,' Greg said.

Harriet nodded 'Yeah, great theory Greg, let's get that down to the lab ASAP please.'

'Not a problem but we don't have a DNA tech,' Grissom said, joining them. He had been speaking to Brass and looking over their work.

'Why not?' Harriet asked.

'Because you're here,' Greg pointed out, under other circumstances he might have laughed at her stupidity but he didn't blame her.

'Yeah, of course,' Harriet said, taking the now sealed swab from Nick. 'I'll get right on it.'

Greg was astounded at the resilience she was demonstrating. He knew, although she hadn't told him yet, how much Jake meant to her but she was really holding it together. He offered to drive her back to the lab and help her with the sample which she accepted but seemed distant despite how focussed she had been when examining the crime scene. He just hoped to high heaven, not that he was a believer, that they would be able to solve this one.

* * *

'Oh come on you stupid machine,' Harriet snarled, hitting the DNA analysing machine on the top.

She had been waiting for half an hour now for the sample from the apartment to be finished. It felt more like six hours but she knew that was her usual impatience mixed with the dire need to find her son as soon as possible. The machine continued to whirr and click as she paced up and down the front of her lab, nearly knocking Greg over as he came through the door.

'Whoa, careful,' he said, gently.

'Oh Greg, it's taking forever,' Harriet complained.

'Don't worry, it'll be done soon I'm sure. I may have a little good news for you though,' he replied.

Harriet stopped pacing and looked at him, her eyes wide with anticipation. Her heart felt like it had stopped beating in her chest, she was so anxious. Greg smiled unconfidently. Just tell me, she wanted to scream but felt that that would be unproductive in this situation.

'Well?' she said as calmly as she could.

'Yeah, sorry, trace gave the red fibres priority for us and they found that they were made up of polyester.' Greg informed her.

'Great, that rules out practically no one,' Harriet groaned.

'Hey, I thought you were a top CSI back home? What's with the giving up?' he responded, his playful nature returning for a second.

'I wasn't a top one, it's not like I was a supervisor or anything, I was just good at working things out.' She said in her defence.

'O.k., so work this one out, what kind of person would wear red polyester with traces of evaporated vegetable shortening? Not exactly the cologne I would choose.' Greg quipped.

'A fast food restaurant, the bastard works in a fast food restaurant.' Harriet gasped, excitedly.

Her face fell again. 'That still doesn't exactly narrow it down much, how many fast food restaurants must there be around here?'

'I know, a lot, but if we narrow it down to all those with red uniforms we might be able to find something,' Greg said.

She loved the hope in his voice. Even though she was still in the back of her mind preparing herself for the fact that Jake could be dead, Greg's confidence and hopefulness was reassuring and was stopping her from giving up completely. At that moment, Nick came in clutching a sheet of paper, seemingly analysis results.

'Hattie, I've got a small lead; our suspect works in a fast food restaurant. I found some black fragments on the edge of the coffee table after you left. Rubber, like the soles of your shoes with traces of vegetable fat on them. That explains why he left a part of his shoe behind because….' He was blurting out so quickly she could only just understand him.

'Because vegetable fat erodes the bottom of your shoes when you work in that kind of environment everyday?' Harriet finished for him, questioningly.

'Yeah,' Nick said.

'Thanks but we just worked out that the guy must work in a fast food restaurant from the fibres we found.' Harriet couldn't help but smile.

'Oh, o.k,' Nick said, relaxing a little. 'Any hits from your DNA yet?'

Harriet shook her head 'It's taking ages, I think the machine must be broken.'

'It's not broken,' Greg said 'You're just being impatient.'

'What do you expect?' Harriet snapped.

The three stood in an awkward silence for a second or two. Harriet tried to look at Greg apologetically but he looked at the floor. Before she could even consider saying sorry, she was distracted by the beep of the machine and the paper that was coming out of the printer.

* * *

Greg avoided her eyes. He hadn't meant to be insensitive, he didn't blame her for being impatient, he just wanted her to stay calm. This situation was taking its toll. He was worried about Jake, dreaded to think what could happen but he was also worried about Harriet if something did happen. His heart skipped a beat as he heard the machine finish its work and print out the result. He watched as Harriet snatched them from the printer and read them.

There was something in the way her face changed that told him this had just got a little bit worse. She looked stunned as if the results had surprised her yet relieved in a way; perhaps this was a major lead. But then her hands started to shake violently. Nick put a hand on her shoulder.

'Hattie, what is it?' he asked.

'This crime isn't random,' she said, shakily.

'How do you know?' Nick asked but Greg had an inkling where this was going.

'Can you pass me the file from that box please, Greg?' Harriet indicated behind where he was standing.

Greg recognised the box as the one Rick had sent along with Jake and his suspicion was confirmed as he removed the lid. He took the case file with her mothers name on out of the box and handed it to her.

He watched as Harriet flicked it open onto the page she wanted. She stared at it for a second and then looked at her own sheet of results. He could see tears were forming in her eyes and she kept looking back and forth between the two pieces of paper as if hoping she had made a mistake.

'Harriet?' Greg prompted her to explain.

'The man who has my son is the man who killed my mother.' She said taking a deep shaky breath.

'What?' Nick asked, obviously having no knowledge of Harriet's past.

'At my mum's murder scene they found a DNA sample from some saliva. We could never identify who it belonged to, there was no comparison to match it to, until now.' She explained.

'The blood matches the saliva?' Nick asked. 'How did you think of that?'

Harriet nodded. 'I worked the case and I memorised the results, it's not something you forget. Someone is deliberately doing this,' she said.

'O.k., Harriet, get on the phone to your lab back home, get them to re analyse the actual sample you found and telephone you back with the results to double check. Nick and I will go and see if we can find this fast food restaurant,' Greg said, surprising himself at the way he suddenly felt spurred into action and his mind was working overtime.

'But it's a match, its right here in black and white,' Harriet protested.

'I know but we need to double check anyway and they might have a new sample to match it to with a name that goes with it,' Greg said. 'Come on Nick, let's go.'

He walked quickly out of Harriet's lab, feeling confident that they could solve this. If the person who had Jake was responsible for Harriet's mom's death then they had to have come over to Las Vegas to find either Harriet or Jake or both. In that case they would need to have been close to the crime lab at some time in order to find out where she lived. Greg's mind was working overtime, analysing every possible scenario in the way that CSI's did. He wasn't as confident in his investigating skills as he would like to be but at the minute he knew he was on to something.

* * *

_A/N - again, I don't know exactly how forensic things work but I know the bit about your shoes and vegetable fat is true. I worked in a fast food restaurant once (won't say which one because that would be advertising). Also, Grissom probably wouldn't let someone investigate their own home but I tried to get around that a bit. Read on..._


	22. Sanders The Hero Take Two

**Chapter twenty two – Sanders the hero take two. (Again written whilst under that influence, promise I'm not an alcoholic, just a student – its two different things – honest!) **

Harriet sighed and swung in her chair. It had been nearly an hour and a half since she had rung the lab back home and they had promised to run the sample again and ring her back with the results. That had been difficult – it had involved speaking with Rick and letting him know what had happened. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought to do it straight away. She had been preoccupied with finding Jake. Perhaps she was as selfish as Greg had said. It hurt her that he'd said that but maybe he really was right. She wished she'd known where he'd gone, there was nothing she needed more than her son right now than to see Greg Sanders and his cheeky grin that made her smile. It was odd how stressful situations made one see things clearly. Greg meant a lot more to her than she had initially realised, she was attracted to him despite the fact he was a complete goofball with spiky hair that had a life of it's own.

The phone rang, frightening her so much she half fell off her chair before she managed to collect herself and pick it up.

'Hello?'

'Hi, could I speak to Miss Harriet Charles, please?'

'Speaking.'

'Hello, we've never met, I was your replacement when you left Manchester, I'm sorry to hear about your son,'

Harriet was puzzled. 'I'm sorry, who are you?'

'I'm Andrew Jenkins, the reason I'm calling is we got your DNA results back.'

Her heart skipped a beat and she sat up straight. If a complete stranger was calling her, there must be some new information.

'Did you find anything new?'

'Yes, the sample from your mothers crime scene had half of the same DNA markers that I do,' Andrew explained.

'What are you saying?' Harriet asked, her mind a blank in the surprise and tension of the past couple of hours.

'I'm saying I think my father is your suspect, I'm so sorry,' he said.

'How is that possible? We checked against every person on the database, including staff,' Harriet said, thinking there must have been some mistake.

'My father never worked for the Manchester forensics department, my mother did. Her DNA was on file but not my fathers,' Andrew continued to explain.

Harriet search for the name Jenkins in her mind, trying to find a woman's name.

'Sarah Jenkins, she works in reception,' Harriet said.

'Yes and the reason my father has only just been identified is because…' Andrew started to explain.

'Because your own DNA only went on file when you joined the department which was after I left and the sample didn't pick up anything on your mother because she's only married to your father, not a blood relative,' Harriet finished for him.

'Exactly, I heard you were smart,' Andrew said.

'I'd thank you but I think your father has my son. Is Rick still there?' Harriet asked.

'No, he went straight to the airport, he's coming over as soon as he can.' Andrew answered.

'O.k., thank you. You've been an incredible help.' Harriet said, about to put the phone down.

'Wait, don't you want to know where my father is?'

Harriet scolded herself mentally for being so dumb 'Of course I do, where is he?'

'His name is Jonathan. He's in Las Vegas, obviously, he said he was going to visit an old friend on the west side, I'm afraid I don't have an exact address for him,'

'That's fine,' Harriet said, feeling sick as she realised both the lab and the apartment were on the west side of the city.

She hung up and sat for a moment, trying to think all this through. He was the receptionist's husband, she had never met him yet he had been there at her mothers murder and her son's kidnapping. A motive, as yet, was completely beyond her cognition. But he was on the west side; he must be if he knew where she was living. She looked up as Greg came into the lab.

'Any luck?' they asked each other at the same time.

'Sorry, not a lot,' Greg said, giving his news first. 'We've narrowed the red uniform down to 42 restaurants so far so it could take a while. How about you?'

'I've got a name but no address. Turns out the guy who replaced me had half of the same DNA markers as our suspect. His father is in Las Vegas on the west side and is married to the receptionist at my old lab,' Harriet relayed the information she had just been given as succinctly as possible.

'So the guy knows you?' Greg asked.

'Apparently, I've never met him though but he must be close by, how else would he know where we live and that I have Jake with me and why is he doing this anyway?'

* * *

Greg was feeling defeated as he walked into Harriet's lab. Sure, he and Nick had managed to narrow the uniform down to 42 restaurants but that didn't mean they were any closer to finding the kidnapper. The new information Harriet gave him set his mind into over drive again. He felt a little sick at the idea that someone could have been following them, watching their every move. But the suspect was linked to Harriet, his wife was the receptionist at the lab she used to work at and now he was known to be staying in the same side of the city as Harriet lived and worked in. How could he have known where she would be unless he was following them? She hadn't even been living in the apartment she intended to. Greg stopped in his tracks, a thought occurring to him.

'Harriet, why did you lose your original apartment?' he asked.

'What does that have to do with anything?' she replied.

'Just answer me!' he snapped, desperate for an answer.

'I don't know, the landlord said some guy offered more money than me, I just got ripped off I guess,' she said.

'The address, what was the address?' Greg asked, impatiently, preparing to tear out of the door.

'Umm, 1731C rodeo boulevard, why?' Harriet asked.

'Stay here,' Greg ordered and ran out of the lab down the corridor.

He heard her run after him but he ignored it, searching desperately for Grissom. He needed him to get Brass and get a search warrant. He felt a hand grip his shoulder tightly as he stopped outside Grissom's office, looking in for him. He turned and found himself facing Harriet.

'Greg, what is it? If you're thinking something I need to know,' she said, desperately.

He sighed 'O.k., the suspect is married to the receptionist who would have your forwarding address am I right?' Greg explained.

'Yes.'

'Don't you think it's a little convenient that you lost your apartment and he happens to be in Las Vegas?' Greg asked.

'You think he stole my apartment so that he could watch me?' Harriet asked, an astonished look on her face.

'I think it's a possibility which also means there's a possibility that Jake could be there,' Greg finished.

'And you weren't going to tell me this? I want to come with you,' she said.

Greg sighed as he glimpsed Grissom appearing in front of them. He needed to end this conversation and talk to his supervisor as soon as he could. He felt a hard sharp slap across his face.

'Speak to me Greg, why weren't you going to tell me?' she demanded.

'I don't want you to come in case…in case,' he tried to say it but didn't want to.

'In case he's already dead?' Harriet said bitterly, tears were forming in her eyes. He hated that she had to be told this but he didn't want her walking into a crime scene and seeing another member of her family dead, if that were to happen.

'That's probably not going to happen, it could be a false lead, it's just a hunch,' Greg said.

'It's not your call to make,' she shouted, hysterically. 'He's my son, I want to be there, you can't keep me away from him. If he's there I want to be with him.'

She was hitting him against the chest with her fists. The anger she must have been feeling all night was clearly being taken out on him. She was good at hiding how she felt but it seemed perhaps she had reached breaking point. Greg didn't feel angry that she was beating up on him but he was growing impatient. He gripped both sides of her face firmly and looked into her eyes.

'I don't want you to come in case it is the worst-case scenario that we find. I'm not saying that is what's going to happen but I care about you so much and I don't want to put you through that. I am trying to protect you,' he said sternly through gritted teeth. 'Now go and sit in the break room, get a coffee and I will come and find you when I know something.'

* * *

Harriet stepped away, stunned that he had been so forceful with her. It wasn't violent but it felt slightly aggressive although she knew that wasn't his intention. As if under some kind of automatic pilot, she walked slowly past Grissom towards the break room, feeling like the building was spinning. It felt like it was getting closer to the time where she would find out if Jake was alive or dead. The fact that Greg thought it was a possibility made her lose some of the hope she had had at the beginning of the night. Greg was one of the most optimistic people she had met and even he was thinking the worst. This couldn't happen.

* * *

'LVPD open up!' Brass shouted, hammering on the door of the run down apartment.

Harriet got off lightly not living here, Greg thought for a brief moment then felt insensitive as he realised she would probably much rather be living in here than going through what she was right now.

There was no answer from inside so Brass kicked at the door. It flew open and he, Greg and Grissom ran quickly into the apartment, guns in hand, ready for a confrontation. After a quick run around the three other rooms that came off the living room, Brass declared the apartment was clear. Greg's heart sunk; there was nothing here.

'It was a good lead, Greg, you did a good job, you were thinking like a CSI,' Grissom said, putting his gun back in his holster.

'Yeah, but not good enough, he's not here is he?' Greg said, sighing, fighting back the tears he could feel were stinging at the corners of his eyes.

'Is this any good to you?' Brass asked, walking out of one of the bedrooms holding up a red uniform shirt.

Greg looked wide-eyed at Grissom 'This can't be a coincidence, Gris' he said, a little hope returning.

He smiled, relieved that he hadn't been completely wrong. Taking his torch from his kit, he shone it around in the corners of the room hoping for some kind of evidence that might help him find out where Jake was. Over on the far side of the room was a wide cupboard that didn't look out of place but he decided to check out the letters lying on top of it to see if there were any clues as to where the suspect had been. As he approached the cupboard, he saw that there was some kind of liquid leaking from behind the door and there was a small puddle on the floor. He crouched down to look more closely when Grissom distracted him.

'Greg, this shirt is from the diner,' he said.

'Oh my god,' Greg said. 'How long has this guy been watching us?'

He rubbed his forehead with his hand, thinking what to do next when he heard someone else speak.

'Greg?' the voice was small and young.

His head shot up to face the doors of the cupboard. They were made up of an intricate wooden pattern that made tiny diamond shaped holes. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he made out a pair of eyes looking back at him from inside the cupboard as the glare from Grissom's torch spilled over into the corner. Greg pulled open the cupboard door and came face to face with a tearstained Jake.

The little boy jumped onto Greg, wrapping his arms around his neck and bursting into tears. Greg stroked his back reassuringly.

'It's o.k, little guy, you're safe now.' He said.

'I want mummy, the man wouldn't let me see her and he wouldn't let me go to toilet,' Jake pulled away, sobbing and looking down at his pyjama bottoms, which had a wet patch on them.

Greg felt anger swelling up inside him along with the immense relief that Jake was alive and well.

'Are you hurt?' he heard Grissom ask, as Greg had been stunned into silence.

'No, sir,' Jake replied, his manners still intact despite his ordeal.

'Greg, you want to take him to Harriet?' Brass asked.

Greg looked at Jake who looked back at him, still sobbing quietly. He pulled him close to him and stroked his brown hair. Jake was alive, unhurt, a little shaken but unhurt. Greg didn't know what to do now. All the time since he had found out Jake was missing, he had been thinking of Mikey Richardson and praying that this would turn out better and it had.

'Greg, you o.k?' Brass asked.

'I'm fine,' Greg replied, standing and picking Jake up as he did so. The little boy clung on to him.

'Wait,' Grissom said. 'Jenkins could still be watching the lab, if he sees you turn up with Jake, he'll know we're on to him.'

'So what do you suggest we do?' Greg asked.

He swore Grissom almost smiled as if impressed at his own ingenuity before he relayed his plan.

* * *

_A/N - quite a long chapter there. Hope you're all still awake. Again, the usual applies to the forensics things. I'm not very good at thinking up clues or the science to go with them so that is why it all seems so easy but it works (I hope). _


	23. Happy Families

**Chapter Twenty-Three – Happy Families. **

Harriet sat biting her nails. She hadn't heard anything yet and it had been nearly an hour. She stood up and started pacing up and down the break room. Please let him be o.k, please let him be o.k, she repeated over and over in her head.

'Hattie, you need to come with me,' Nick said, bursting through the door and making her jump.

'What is it?' she asked, stopping dead.

'Just come with me,' he said, grabbing her by the elbow and leading her out of the break room.'

She didn't protest or question him again as he led her down a couple of corridors belonging to the crime lab. She began to feel uneasy as she noticed they were heading to the coroners office at the back of the lab. The uneasiness turned to fear as Nick led her towards the double doors that were at the end of the corridor just by the coroner's office. She had worked in forensics long enough to know that most of the people who came in through those doors were no longer living. It was the drop off point for corpses. The fear turned into panic as Nick opened the doors and she saw the back of the coroner's office van parked outside them.

Her heart was beating faster than she had ever known it as she saw Greg get out of the passenger side of the van. His face looked tired and drawn. He looked over at her as he walked towards the back doors but his expression didn't change. She put a shaky hand to her head as she felt tears fall and tried to scream 'no' but it came out as a half-hearted croaky whisper. Greg didn't come over to her. Instead he opened the back doors of the van and lifted something out. It was a small body.

The hysterics she could feel coming on got swallowed back down as Greg walked over to her with what she had thought was a body but now realised was a living, breathing Jake. He reached his little arms out to her and she took him from Greg.

'Mummy!' Jake squealed, shaking in her arms.

'Oh thank goodness,' Harriet said, squeezing him tightly. 'Are you all right?'

'I peed my pants I'm sorry,' was the innocent reply.

Harriet half laughed and half cried, stroking his hair and looking at him, taking in his face as if she hadn't seen him for years.

'That's fine sweetheart, I don't mind at all. I love you,' she said. 'I love you so much.'

Jake hugged her again. 'I love you too mummy,' he said.

Harriet thumped Nick on the arm as best she could whilst holding a small child. He winced and complained.

'What was that for?' he whined.

'For making me think he was dead!' she snapped.

'I just got told to bring you down here, I didn't know what was going on!' he protested.

'It was Grissom's idea,' Greg interjected. 'We think Jonathan Jenkins has been working at the diner and might be watching the lab now. Griss didn't want to risk him knowing we had found Jake.' He explained.

'Actually, it was Greg who found him,' Grissom said as he approached them. 'If it wasn't for him, we probably wouldn't be here right now.'

Harriet looked at Greg, her heart still pounding with all the excitement at being reunited with her son. She gave him a shaky smile and set Jake down on the floor. He clung onto her leg as she threw her arms around Greg and hugged him tightly.

'Thank you so much,' she said. 'I…I don't know what to say. Thank you doesn't seem a big enough word. You don't know what you've done for me.'

'I think I do,' Greg said, pulling away. 'Now get back to your son.' He ruffled Jakes hair and turned to Grissom to discuss what their next move was.

Harriet stared at him. How could he be so cool? He had just saved her sons life and didn't seem to be batting an eyelid yet he still looked like he had the entire weight of the world on his shoulders and hadn't slept for a year. She didn't know how she could ever repay him. She owed him so much.

* * *

'Mummy I don't want to look,' Jake whined, leaning his head against her wearily.

He was sitting on her knee wearing a t-shirt Greg had leant him, which he looked completely lost in because it was about fifty sizes too big for him.

Greg was trying to get Jake to look at a picture of Jonathan Jenkins that he had taken in the interrogation room. They had arrested him at the diner as he was handing in his notice and collecting his final wages. The nerve of the guy. He had killed Harriet's mother and taken her son and still expected to be paid for a job that he had only taken to get close to her.

'Jake, I know it's scary but he can't hurt you because you're with us. I just need you to look and tell me if this is the man that took you.' Greg tried to encourage him.

'I don't want to, I don't want to,' Jake was on the verge of crying again.

'I don't think you should force him, Greg,' Harriet said.

He looked up into her eyes, trying to remain calm. He didn't want to hurt Jake but it was important that Jake identified Jenkins. Although they had some evidence to convict him, an eyewitness testimony would help strengthen the case especially as Jenkins lawyer was busy coming up with eccentric explanations for his client being at both apartments. Greg didn't want to lose the case. They had been working on him for hours. If Harriet said that Jake didn't have to look at the picture then the boy would never agree to it. Greg broke eye contact with her, not wanting to appear hostile and turned to Jake again.

'Hey Jake, you ever been to the circus?' he asked, softly.

Jake lifted his head and stared at him wide eyed. He shook his head.

'No? You've never been to a circus?' Greg asked again in mock disbelief for the child's benefit.

'No,' Jake smiled and shook his head again.

'Well, I heard there's a circus show on in town, we could go see it when we finish up here,' Greg said.

'Yeah yeah yeah!' Jake squealed, excitedly.

Greg smiled. 'Cool, you never know there might be lions. Are you scared of lions?'

Jake shook his head 'Nuh-uh!' he said.

'A little guy like you and you're not scared of lions?' Greg asked, again as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

'No way,' Jake said, smiling again.

'You know what I think? I think you must be a really brave little kid,' Greg said with a smile.

'Yep I am,' Jake said, now grinning broadly.

'So if I show you the picture do you think you can help me?' Greg asked, cautious that his technique might not work.

Jake looked uncertain and looked up at his mother. She smiled and stroked his hair.

'I don't know,' Jake said.

'If you're not scared of lions, nothing can hurt you,' Greg said.

Harriet looked at him sternly. 'That's enough Greg.'

Jake ignored her and nodded at him. 'O.k.'

Greg took the picture out of the file and held it out towards the little boy. He felt his blood pressure increase as he saw the look of fear on Jakes face. He really wanted to catch this guy. Jake simply nodded and looked at Greg.

'I need you to say it out loud please Jake,' Greg said.

'That's the man that hit Emily and took me,' Jake said and buried his face into Harriet's shoulder.

'Thank you Jake, ' Greg said.

* * *

Harriet laid Jake down on the break room sofa, encouraging him to close his eyes and try to sleep. After reassuring him several times that she wasn't going to leave the room, he finally closed them. Grissom was talking to Greg, congratulating him on getting the ID from Jake. She got up and grabbed Greg by the elbow, steering him out of earshot from her son. She was fuming with him.

'Greg, I said that was enough!' she snapped quietly.

'Harriet, I needed him to tell me,' Greg shot back.

'Don't you have enough physical evidence? I asked you to leave him alone and you ignored me!' she said, angrily.

'Whatever, you might not be determined to make sure that guy goes behind bars but I certainly am,' Greg spat cruelly.

'Don't start that on me, I know you think I'm selfish but I'm not that selfish. Of course I want him to go down for this.' Harriet said.

'Then what's the problem?'

'I asked you to stop hounding him and you carried on, I'm his mother I decide what he can and can't do.'

'Yeah now that it suits you,' Greg said.

Harriet was stunned into silence. She had seen a new side to Greg this evening and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. He looked away from her and avoided her eye contact. Yeah you do that, she thought, I don't want to look at you right now anyway.

'Hattie, Greg don't start this again,' Grissom said, finally interrupting the tension.

Harriet scowled at Grissom; she couldn't believe he was sticking up for Greg. Her son had been affected by this whole ordeal and she didn't want him going through anymore, unnecessary trauma. She was about to respond to Grissom when Nick opened the break room door and came in followed by Rick who ran up to her and enveloped her in a hug. She was mildly surprised by this show of affection, which was something they hadn't shared since they split, but it felt nice all the same.

'Hattie, is he o.k, where is he?' Rick asked, hurriedly.

'He's doing fine, he's over there,' Harriet indicated to the sofa.

'What about you are you all right?' he asked, pulling back a little.

Harriet felt her stomach turn over. No one had asked her how she was since they had found Jake, not that she expected them to but she realised she'd needed to be asked.

'Oh you know, it's been a roller coaster,' she said, feeling her bottom lip start to shake.

She couldn't do this now. For years she had tried to show Rick that she was emotionless. Crying in front of him was something she had never done and felt like she was failing in some way by doing so.

'It's o.k, we've got him back now,' Rick said putting a hand on the side of her face, making her think back to the good times they had shared before she had gotten pregnant.

'Daddy?' Jake said, sitting up on the sofa.

'Hey, little man, how're you doing?' Rick replied, cheerily.

Jake jumped up from the sofa and ran to his father who picked him up and held him. Harriet could see how much Rick loved his son and how much Jake loved him in return. He was an excellent father, something she should have given him credit for long ago. She smiled and put her hand on Jakes back. Rick smiled back at her and put an arm around her shoulders.

* * *

Greg wanted to scream out loud. How could she shout at him for trying to get Jake to identify the picture when he had done everything he could to help find him? Not that he wanted credit for that or some special recognition but a little slack wouldn't go amiss. Ever since he had seen Jake looking at him through those cupboard doors he had felt like he was in a daze. His mind was buzzing with images of the Richardson case, the thought of losing Jake and the feelings he had for Harriet. He so desperately wanted to tell her that she had changed his life but he could never seem to find the right time. First off, Jake had turned up. Then when he was seriously thinking about asking her out, tonight had happened. And now when he was bursting to shout it out to her, she was scolding him for doing his job and trying to do right by Jake. And now, to top things off here was Rick, the ex. How convenient.

Greg resolved himself to the conclusion that there was no way anything would ever happen between Harriet and him as he closed the door on the image that was father, mother and son all cuddled together like the perfect little family.

* * *

_A/N - another spanner in the works. I do like throwing them in there. I don't think I have anything to explain about this chapter. Obviously, protocal regarding Jake having to ID the picture is totally made up. I don't know if they would do that when they have some evidence already but anyway. _


	24. Unrequited

**Chapter Twenty-Four – Unrequited. **

Harriet hadn't even bothered to ask Greg if it was all right for Rick to stay. She knew it was presumptuous of her but she decided she would treat it like it was her apartment as well for a change. She had spent a month living with Greg and treating it like she was a guest but she was paying rent just as much as he was. Besides, after the way he had spoken to her earlier, she didn't give a toss. Even if they spent the rest of their lives living in that apartment she wasn't going to give him the time of day. She supposed that was her stubbornness kicking in again but right now she had more important things to worry about.

She settled herself onto the sofa with Rick and Jake after getting Rick a stiff drink. She fixed herself one too for that matter. They had been lucky in that the apartment was no longer the primary crime scene and it had been released just in time for the end of the night shift. Grissom had pulled a few strings on their behalf and got clean up sorted for them too so they had nothing to worry about when they got back. Another bit of luck was that Greg had gone straight to bed without saying a word to anyone except to give Jake a quick hug.

'How's he doing?' Harriet asked, looking at Jake who was curled up on Rick's knee, as though he was about to drop off to sleep.

'I think he's fine, just very tired,' Rick laughed softly as Jake opened his eyes, aware that he was being talked about.

'No I'm not,' he said quietly.

'Yes you are,' Rick said, smiling.

'He's very stubborn,' Harriet said.

'Just like his mum,' Rick said and looked at her.

Harriet felt uncomfortable as their eyes met and was paranoid that he might kiss her. She laughed at herself and told herself not to be so vain although she knew that her paranoia wasn't totally unfounded. Rick had tried many times to get her to go back and for them to be a proper family but she had rejected him. He was a good guy and she didn't quite understand why he kept putting himself through that. Rick leaned over and placed his lips on hers. She closed her eyes for a moment, the kiss was reassuring but then she pulled away. The paranoia definitely wasn't unfounded.

'Don't,' she said, simply.

'I'm sorry,' he said 'But you know how I feel about you.'

Harriet sighed 'Why do you do it?'

'Why do I do what?'

'Why do you keep trying with me? I dumped you at the first sign of trouble and then left you holding the baby. I haven't done anything a normal human being would do, so why do you want to be with me?'

Rick smiled and then looked down to check that Jake was asleep. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, the little boy had succumbed to the need to recuperate almost instantly.

'Because I know you're a good person and you didn't do any of those things because you wanted to, you did them because you got scared, like any normal human being would do,' Rick said. 'Hell, I was terrified when you left Jake in my arms and just walked away. I might have been a grown man but I had no idea how to raise a child.'

'You've done a pretty good job so far from what I've seen,' Harriet said.

'I just got lucky; he's a great kid. He really is a lot like you, poor bastard,' Rick joked.

'Oi!' Harriet slapped him playfully on the arm but smiled anyway.

'That's something I haven't seen in a while,' he said. 'I always was a sucker for your smile.'

'How corny,' Harriet said. 'So when are you going back to England?'

'Trying to get rid of me already?' Rick asked, grinning.

'No, I just want to know how long it is before you're taking Jake back.' Harriet said, her mood dropping a little. She really wanted him to say never but she couldn't possibly expect him to give up his son for her.

'A couple of days I suppose, I don't know how long I can get away with being AWOL from the lab and besides I thought I'd stay long enough for Jake to go to this circus he's been going on about. What is that?'

'Oh, Greg said he'd take him to the circus to get Jake to look at a picture of Jenkins to identify him,' Harriet said.

'Smart move,' Rick said.

'If you say so, I asked him to stop pestering him and he didn't,' Harriet said with a frown.

Rick rolled his eyes at her and took a sip of his drink. Harriet frowned even harder at him, giving him a look that questioned what he was thinking. He smiled at her and shook his head amusedly before speaking.

'Greg's a CSI, he needs to get his case solved,' Rick said.

'At the expense of my son being more traumatised than he already was?' Harriet scoffed.

'It sounds like he did it very well, you can't honestly believe he cares more about his case than Jake? I saw how he was with him just now before he headed to bed, they've both bonded with each other,'

'I know, he has been very good with him but tonight he's been weird and I felt like he was pressuring Jake. I don't think he would have lost the case without the ID,' Harriet protested.

'Maybe not but he wanted to make sure didn't he?' Rick said.

'What do you mean?'

'I mean, Jake means a lot to him and he wanted to make sure there was no way that guy would ever be able to hurt him again.'

Harriet put a hand to her lips and looked at the floor. Perhaps she had been far too hard on Greg. Now she was thinking a bit more clearly, she could see Rick's interpretation made sense. But there had been no need for Greg to make a dig at her for not being a very good mother. She felt Rick lift her chin to look at him.

'Are you totally blind?' he asked.

'No, what are you talking about?'

'To say you could give me a run for my money on an investigation you're not very good at seeing what's right under your nose,' he said.

Harriet raised an eyebrow. She had absolutely no idea where Rick was going with this and she was totally confused. Maybe she was losing her touch and her investigator skills after all.

* * *

Greg sighed and turned over in his bed again before rolling over a second time and thumping the pillow. He couldn't sleep; he had so much going through his mind. Mikey Richardson on the floor covered in blood. Opening the cupboard door and a dead Jake falling out on him.

Even though that hadn't happened, the notion that that could have been the alternative was eating him up. And now Harriet and Rick were in the living room, probably making up for lost time for all he knew. He wished he didn't care but he did. He had totally blown anything with her after the comment he had made about her parenting skills. It was out of order but so was she and he had been angry at the time. Jake was alive and well and her mother's case was practically solved yet she had treated him like he was the bad guy.

He sat up and exhaled deeply. His head was pounding and he needed a drink. Quietly, he got up and tiptoed over to his bedroom door. He had been tossing and turning for ages, surely they must have fallen asleep by now.

Opening his door a crack, he glanced over at the sofa and saw Harriet leant against Rick; both of them were asleep whilst Jake was nestled in the crook of his father's arm also fast asleep. Greg walked quietly over to the kitchen and poured himself a drink of milk from the carton in the fridge. He walked quietly back towards his room with the glass of milk but stopped as he got near the end of the sofa.

As he watched her sleeping, curled up close to the father of her child, Greg felt defeated but wanted her more than ever much like a teenager that wants to be with someone they have been forbidden from seeing. The fact he couldn't have her was more difficult than if he'd had a chance. He sighed quietly and returned to his room. He supposed he would get over her eventually but he swore it was physically hurting him that he had lost her. As long as she was happy…who was he trying to kid? He'd much rather her be happy with him than anyone else.

* * *

Harriet lifted her head from Rick's shoulder and smiled. She was glad they had sat and talked. Things felt a lot clearer now. She was glad that Greg had thought she was asleep. She was also glad that he had stood briefly before going back into his room. It meant that she had hopefully made the first right decision in a long time. She kissed Rick on the cheek whilst he slept and then got up and went into her own room to sleep.

* * *

_A/N - just thought we needed a bit of explanation about Harriet and Rick's relationship and what was going on with them. Not much else to report/explain or apologise for (other than the terrible writing but that's obvious!) Hee Hee _


	25. Reconciliation

_A/N - again there are some made up/spelt wrong words in here on purpose but the actual word is revealed again so it will make sense. It's just a repeated joke like from the earlier chapter where Jake couldn't say responsibilities._

**Chapter Twenty-Five – Reconciliation. **

'Greg! Greg! Greg!'

Greg groaned and tried to open his eyes but they were still heavy. He hadn't slept very well but knew he would have to get up for work soon. A few more minutes wouldn't go amiss but someone certainly wanted to make sure he wasn't going to get them.

'Wake up!' the voice shouted loudly.

'O.K. O.k.' Greg moaned defeated and rolled over, opening his eyes enough to see who was there.

Jake was jumping up and down on the empty side of his bed; clearly full of energy, which seemed odd, as it was early evening. Greg rubbed his eyes and smiled.

'What do you want you little monster?' he asked, tiredly but still managed to be playful.

'I wanna go to the circus!' Jake announced.

'Sorry little dude, I have to go to work,' Greg replied.

Jake stuck his bottom lip out and bounced on the bed once more landing skilfully on his bottom next to Greg.

'You've bounced on beds before haven't you?' Greg said, laughing.

'Don't tell my daddy,' Jake said quietly and Greg had to laugh some more. Even at the age of three this kid was smart.

'I won't I promise and I will take you to the circus tomorrow afternoon, just check that it's o.k. with your mom and dad,' Greg said.

'Dad says it's o.k, as long as he gets to take me out before because it's my birthday,' Jake said excitedly and clapped his hands.

'Really?' Greg said, surprised that Harriet hadn't mentioned it earlier in the week. 'What's your mom say?'

'Nothing.' Jake said. 'She always forgets.'

Greg felt his heart sink at the sincerity of the little boy. He didn't seem to mind at all that his own mother forgot his birthday every year.

'O.k. I won't forget I promise, what do you want for your birthday?' Greg asked.

Jake sat for a few minutes as if trying to think of something. It was obviously a hard decision for a young man about to turn four years old. Finally, Jake looked up at Greg again, his eyes wide with excitement.

'I want one of them maccasnopes like mummy has,' Jake said.

'A want?'

'A micnarsoap.' Jake said.

'Really, I don't understand,' Greg said.

Jake made a noise like he was getting frustrated. 'It's one of those words I can't remember like spostinilities,' Jake said.

'Oh, o.k. Try and say it slowly.' Greg said.

'A micarslope like mummy uses at work,' Jake said.

Greg smiled with realisation 'Ohh, a microscope?'

'Yeah that's what I said.' Jake replied.

'O.k. I'll see what I can do now get out of here so I can get dressed.'

'Yeah good idea. Mummy doesn't want to see your bum again,' Jake said and laughed loudly.

Greg snorted in surprise that Jake had said this. 'What?'

'When you had no clothes on, mummy was smiling for ages,' Jake said pulling a face.

'Get out of here you,' Greg said, pushing him off the bed.

Jake laughed and ran out back into the kitchen/living room area where Rick had just started to call him. Greg rubbed his forehead out of lack of sleep and embarrassment that the naked incident had been brought up again and also because he didn't know Jake had noticed when it happened he had been in such a rush for the toilet. It seemed like it was years ago but it had only been last night. Something felt different though; like they had crossed some invisible line somewhere and the days of joking and winding each other up were gone. How they were going to live together now he wasn't sure. She could even be going back to England for all he knew; the three of them had looked very cosy earlier.

Greg shook his head to rid it of his thoughts and got up to have a shower, making sure the bathroom door was well and truly locked.

* * *

Harriet couldn't remember the last time she felt so nervous. She felt like a teenager waiting for her first date to pick her up only it was mixed with the fear that this could all go horribly wrong. She wasn't naïve enough to think that an apology would straighten things out but she hoped it might help.

Having left Jake and Rick in the break room, she wandered down the corridor to find Greg. Wandered wasn't the word – more like dawdled. She was putting it off as long as she could, paying particular attention to the floor tiles whilst she was deep in thought.

'Where are you going in such a hurry?'

Harriet stopped walking and looked up to her left. She was surprised to find the owner of the sarcastic comment was Greg. She was doubly surprised to find that he was in the DNA lab, working from the looks of it.

'I was looking for you actually,' she said, hoping her nerves weren't coming out in her voice.

'Well, you found me. Pull up a pew,' Greg said.

Harriet walked into the lab and sat down in the spare chair. Maybe he was prepared to talk now. He hadn't said anything to her at home, she knew he had had a chat with Jake but aside from getting something to eat when he finally emerged from his room, she hadn't seen him. Greg was busy transferring some serum onto a swab before putting it into the DNA analyser. He pressed some buttons on the machine then put everything down and looked at her. His eyes were dull; he looked tired and aged for a twenty eight year old.

'So what are you doing here?' he asked, wearily.

'I could ask you the same thing,' Harriet said, with a small smile. 'This is my lab.'

'You're not supposed to be here, Grissom told you to take a few days off,' Greg replied, nonchalantly.

'You know me, never do the right thing,' Harriet said, feeling a little uneasy at his lack of expression.

'I'm covering for you but seeing as you're here,' he said, standing, about to remove his lab coat.

'No,' Harriet said. 'I'm not here to work.'

Greg sat back down silently, his eyes wandering around the lab, looking at everything but her. Harriet sighed and looked at him.

'I'm here to apologise,' she said.

That seemed to gain his interest. He looked up at her, surprised as though he wasn't expecting an apology from her.

'What's that look for?' she asked. 'You don't think I'm capable of admitting when I'm wrong?'

'It's not that. I just thought I was the one who should be apologising,' Greg said, no longer averting eye contact with her.

Harriet breathed a small laugh. 'Let's not start this, we could be here all night,' she said.

Greg gave her a bashful half-smile as though he felt awkward like he didn't really know her.

'I guess,' he said. 'I'm sorry anyway, I said some things yesterday that I probably shouldn't have.'

Harriet shook her head.' No you didn't it's fine. You found Jake and saved his life and all I could do was criticise you for trying to do your job so I'm sorry.'

She exhaled deeply as if it had been a great strain to say it. It was more so that she wanted to say it right, so he knew that she meant every word. He smiled softly at her as though he was grateful for the apology but embarrassed at the same time.

'I wasn't expecting any recognition I wanted him safe as much as you did,' Greg said.

Harriet nodded 'I know and I accused you of not having his best interests at heart and I was wrong, I'm sorry I really am. I don't want to lose our friendship.'

* * *

Friendship. That's what it was to her. It wasn't entirely what he wanted but it was better than nothing at all. He had felt anxious when he had seen her wandering around outside and had debated whether or not to speak to her but he had done it so instinctively that he didn't recall making the decision to say anything. The banter they had had felt forced and awkward but it felt nice to be speaking to her again. He was surprised that she had come looking for him to apologise. He had been angry at her last night but common sense had kicked in and he had put her outburst down to the stress of what she had been through. His trepidation at speaking to her again had more to do with what he had said to her in the heat of the moment.

'I don't either but I have to confess I'm surprised you're still talking to me after what I said to you,' he said, avoiding her eyes out of shame.

'I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt,' Harriet said quietly, looking at the counter and then up at him.

'I didn't mean it, I was just tired and angry and I know that's no excuse,' Greg said, desperately, trying to explain.

Harriet looked at him, tilting her head to one side as if she was thinking something. She looked sympathetically at him as if she had psycho analysed some underlying issue that Greg had.

'Maybe, but there was something behind it wasn't there?' she said.

'I thought you were a CSI not a shrink,' Greg said, half-joking although her comment had struck a nerve.

'You're avoiding the question Greg, you were angry but sometimes people say what they're really thinking when they're angry. What were you thinking?' Harriet asked.

Greg sighed feeling a tingling sensation in his nose and a warmth behind his eyelids as he closed his eyes for a second. He couldn't do this; he didn't want to cry over this again. He took a deep breath in and opened his eyes again, glad that no tears fell. It wouldn't have made a difference, her face fell when she looked at him. She could see he was upset.

'As soon as I found out Jake was missing I thought about Mikey. I didn't want another dead child on my hands and I felt angry that you had only just realised that you could be a mother because you have an incredible kid and you're so lucky to have him. Mikey's mom would do anything to get him back and would be grateful for that much. You've had Jake for a week, how could you know whether I was making things worse for him?' Greg said taking a slow shaky breath because he had said it all so quickly. 'That's sort of why I said what I said, I'm so sorry.'

Harriet smiled at him, she didn't shout, didn't scream or try and stick the microscope somewhere where even surgery wouldn't be able to remove it. She just smiled at him.

'I understand and I think the reason it hurt so much was that I knew deep down what you were saying was true so don't feel bad about it. I'm totally to blame.' Harriet said eventually.

'I thought we weren't going to do this?' Greg asked with a smile.

'Do what?'

'Go around in circles, blaming ourselves and apologising,' he said.

Harriet laughed. 'We're not doing a very good job are we?'

'Not really. How about I apologise and you accept it?' he suggested.

'O.k., but then you have to accept my apology too,' Harriet smiled.

'Deal. I'm sorry.' Greg said, feeling the tension that had been building up lifting from him.

'Apology accepted, I'm sorry too.'

'Also accepted,' Greg said, smiling.

They sat for a moment not saying anything. He started to look around the room again, pretending to check on the progress of the DNA machine. He was glad that they had talked this through but he also felt like he was going to cry any minute. He looked down at his shoes; the thoughts of the Richardson case were fading but still there like they were haunting him. He looked up when he felt Harriet take his hand.

'You're really not dealing with it are you?' she asked.

Greg shrugged. 'I don't know what you're talking about.' He lied.

'Mikey's case, I knew it had gotten to you, I just didn't realise how much,' she said in a tone of voice that meant he couldn't deny it.

'I'll be fine, it's just one of those things.' Greg said looking up to the ceiling and blinking away the tears.

'Don't give me that!' Harriet snapped. 'It's been two weeks since it happened and it's still bothering you. Have you talked to anyone about it?

Greg rolled his eyes; he didn't want to have this conversation. He wasn't even sure he wanted to talk about it; he just wanted it to go away so he could be happy, go-lucky dependable Greg again.

The DNA analyser bleeped and the printer started spitting out sheet after sheet of results. He got up quickly and turned it off. He didn't need fifty copies of the same results.

'Damn thing,' he said, picking up the loose ones that had gone on the floor.

'Have you spoken to anyone?' Harriet asked again.

'Grissom asked me if I was o.k after the funeral and I said I was,' Greg said, truthfully, no one else had really asked him.

He carried on picking up the sheets of paper and then started to shuffle them so they were in a neat pile so that he could read them. He looked at the read outs and discovered that the sample was an exact match to one of the suspects.

'I'm sorry, I've got to go find Warrick,' Greg said, starting to exit the lab.

'Sure, I'll see you when you get home.' Harriet replied.

Greg stopped at the door and walked back to her, giving her a huge hug. He wanted to thank her for caring enough to make the first move and sort out their differences. She hugged him back and for a brief moment he felt like his old self again. Beginning to realise that he might have been holding her a lot longer than the unwritten book of friendship boundary crossing would allow, he pulled away. That and he had started to smell her hair. Definitely crossing a boundary there – not a great idea. He started to walk out of the lab again and had an idea. Don't hurt yourself, he imagined Harriet would say.

'So do you want to come with me and Jake tomorrow?' he asked.'

'Yeah sure,' Harriet smiled enthusiastically. 'It's his birthday isn't it?'

'I thought you didn't know,' Greg said.

'I never forgot that,' Harriet said. 'I did spend twelve hours in labour after all.'

Greg laughed a little 'So I'll see you at home and we'll all go to the circus?'

'Sounds great,' Harriet smiled.

'O.k, it's a date,' Greg said and retreated down the corridor a lot faster than Harriet had walked up it, feeling embarrassed that he had said that. It was such a corny line. Also, he didn't want to see her face after he had said it.

* * *

Harriet smiled to herself as she left Grissom's office and headed back up to the break room to get Jake and Rick. Mission accomplished. She just hoped Greg wouldn't mind her interfering. Turning into the break room she was shocked to find Jake crying as Rick was talking to him.

'What's wrong?' she asked, walking over to him and picking him up.

'Nothing, I'm just tired,' Jake said after a quick look at his father.

She felt uneasy at his response. She hadn't known him properly for long but she knew him well enough to know that he didn't admit it when he was tired.

'Let's just get him home,' Rick said. 'His sleep pattern has been messed up a bit, that's all that's wrong.'

Harriet nodded and the three of them headed out of the break room to go back home.

* * *

_A/N - yay no more angst I promise it's all lighthearted and happy happy from here onwards. We are nearly coming to the end. I hope everyone has enjoyed what I've written. I was really nervous about posting this because I've never written a CSI fic before so I appreciate you reading this far and leaving any reviews you want to, good or bad but please don't be too mean. Thank you and on to the circus! _


	26. Clowning Around

_A/N - welcome to the chapter with the most original title ever. I couldn't help it. I have an odd sense of humour!_

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Six – Clowning Around (Sorry!) **

Greg had been nervous when he had been preparing for their day out. Although he knew that, technically, it wasn't a date, he felt like he should be treating it as one. He changed his shirt at least three times. His first choice had been one of his old ones that he hadn't worn since he was a lab tech. Too dorky, he had thought, pulling it off and throwing it on the floor. Next he had put on a simple black shirt, which suited him but he was worried it looked like he was making too much effort. After pondering about this choice for a while, the spaghetti stain he discovered on the bottom of it made the decision for him. It joined the dorky shirt on the floor. Finally he had put on a plain light blue t-shirt with dark blue edging on the hems of the sleeves and the bottom of the t-shirt. It was nice, smart but simple, he had thought. Then he had realised it probably wouldn't make much difference what he wore. He lived with her, she saw him everyday, had seen him first thing in the morning with bed hair and a badly placed bath towel. There wasn't really a lot of point in trying to impress her now that he had thought about it.

He thought back ironically to his indecision over his outfit as he spilt half of Jakes drink all down the front of his t-shirt as they were squeezing past people to get to their seats at the circus. Greg gave an exasperated sigh and sat down when he found their seats. To make matters worse, Harriet looked incredible. She was wearing close fitting blue jeans and a black fitted v-neck t-shirt that showed off her curves and was wearing her hair down. He wished he had made more of an effort himself when he saw her. Wearing his slightly over-sized black suit style jacket over his t-shirt with his jeans he felt like a slob.

'It's o.k. Greg, there's still a lot left,' Jake said, taking the drink from him.

'Sorry, little man, I'll get you another one later if you're still thirsty,' Greg said, remembering the real reason they were here at the circus – to give Jake a good birthday and return some kind of normality to his life.

Greg was worried about him. He had been quite withdrawn all morning, not saying a lot or wanting much to eat. Greg wondered if his ordeal had finally started to get to him.

'You o.k, little fella?' he asked.

'I'm fine,' Jake said. 'Where are the lions?'

'It hasn't started yet,' Greg said, laughing at the way the little boy was craning his neck to see into the ring.

'Can you see properly?' Harriet asked him, she had been busy taking off her jacket and getting comfortable which must have been difficult in a plastic seat.

'I think so,' Jake said right before a man who must have been at least six feet tall sat down in the seat in front of him.

Harriet looked at Greg and smiled. The poor child had no chance of seeing now. Greg held his hands out to Jake.

'Do you want to come and sit with me so you can see better?' he asked.

'Yeah!' Jake said, excitedly and jumped onto Greg's lap, causing him to utter an 'oomph' as the little boy kicked him in the stomach.

Clearly content with having a better view, Jake began to slurp noisily on his drink, which was a shade of red that Greg didn't think actually existed. Someone was going to be bouncing off the walls later, he thought. Along with the drink, Greg had bought a big bag of nachos for them to share and a drink for himself and Harriet, which she had been carrying. He ripped open the bag and offered some to Jake who took a small handful and began stuffing his face.

Greg felt a hand on his right arm as Harriet leaned in closely to him. He held his breath for a moment.

'Look over there, isn't that Sara and Nick?' she asked quietly, pointing to the seats on the opposite side of the ring.

'Where? I can't see,' Greg said, looking at the sea of faces that was gradually increasing as more people entered the big top.

Harriet put a hand on his face and turned it towards her a little.

'There,' she said.

'Oh my God,' Greg said.

There, as sure as day, were Sara and Nick, not playfully throwing popcorn and insults at each other but locked in what looked like a severely passionate embrace.

'I didn't even know they were dating, did you?' Harriet asked.

'No,' Greg said, quietly shaking his head, stunned at what he was seeing.

Harriet took her phone out of her handbag and held it up in their direction. Greg looked at her as he heard the click of the built in camera.

'What are you doing?' he hissed, as if Sara and Nick could hear them from across the big top.

'I'm just having some fun,' she smiled at him, biting her bottom lip. 'Watch this.'

She held her phone between them so he could see what she was doing. She opened up a new text message and wrote 'busted' in capital letters and sent both the photo and the message to Sara's mobile, withholding her own number. Greg laughed at her.

'Oh, you are evil,' he said, enjoying the fact that Nick and Sara were going to be fuming.

'Shh, look!' Harriet pointed at the smooching couple again.

Greg tried hard not to laugh out loud as Sara reluctantly pulled away from Nick and took her phone out of her jeans pocket and opened it up. Greg snorted with laughter as he watched her face drop.

'Oh my God, this is so funny,' Harriet said as Sara showed her phone to Nick and the couple both started looking around the big top.

'Quick, hide!' Harriet said, pushing up against Greg and lowering her head so that Jake would be obscuring Nick and Sara's view of them.

Greg felt his heart begin to beat faster as he smelt her perfume and could feel her body heat next to his. This closeness was uncomfortable because he was so attracted to her.

'What are they doing now, can you see?' Harriet whispered.

Greg peered out from the side of Jake who was still busy slurping his drink and eating up Nachos to notice the immature behaviour of his mother and her friend.

'They're looking at the phone again, looks like they're trying to work out where we are from the angle the picture is taken from,' Greg laughed.

'Once a CSI, always a CSI,' Harriet whispered.

Greg quickly hid behind Jake again. 'Shit, I think they saw me!' he whispered.

Harriet laughed. Her face was extremely close to his. He turned and looked at her. Their eyes met but she didn't move away or say anything. Greg wanted to kiss her so badly but was afraid to after seeing her with Rick the other night.

* * *

Harriet held her breath. This little prank she had played on Sara and Nick had been a great ice breaker and taken away the awkwardness she had felt except now she felt more awkward than ever. Their faces were so close and she was sure by the way he was staring at her that a kiss was on the cards. So why wasn't he doing anything? Typical, she thought, you want a man to do something; you might as well do it yourself. She decided to take action and moved closer to Greg, tilting her head a little, preparing to kiss him when…

'Mummy! Greg! It's starting. Look at the clowns!' Jake squealed.

She quickly came out from where she was hiding behind Jake and looked at the ring.

'Yeah, aren't they funny. Oh look, that's not a very good bicycle is it, it's falling apart,' Harriet said to her son.

'Shut up mummy, I'm trying to watch.' Jake said.

Harriet took his advice and looked at Greg. He looked back at her but then quickly looked at the circus ring, like he hadn't wanted her to catch him looking at her. She sighed and continued to watch the circus, feeling immense love for her son as he jumped up and down with excitement when the lions finally came on.

An hour into the show, the clowns returned to the circus ring. The ringmaster had a mock fight over his microphone with one of them and pretended to lose, surrendering in the end and handing it over. The clown let out a loud chuckling laugh before speaking properly into the microphone.

'A little birdie tells me it someone's birthday today!' he announced and chuckled again.

Jake's turned his head round like a shot and looked at Harriet. She smiled at him.

'I don't think he means you,' she said. 'Someone else must have the same birthday as you.'

'Oh,' Jake said, dejectedly.

'Where's Jake Samuels?' the clown asked, looking at the palm of his hand as if he had the name written down.

'I'm here! I'm here!' Jake squealed, jumping up and down.

Harriet looked at Greg who looked back with a smirk. He had arranged this. The clown walked over to their seats and offered Jake a flower. Jake reached for it and got a face full of water. He squealed and laughed in surprise.

'Oops, sorry about that,' the clown said. 'Do you want to come in the ring where everyone can see you?'

Jake nodded and then looked at Harriet, warily. He looked afraid.

'Mummy can you come with me?' he asked.

'Of course I can,' she said, handing her phone to Greg. 'Here can you take a picture for me?'

Greg held up his own camera. 'I came prepared,' he said with a smile.

Harriet and Jake walked into the circus ring with the clown who instructed the crowd to start singing Happy Birthday. Harriet felt immeasurable pride as she heard the entire big top singing for her son. She joined in too and encouraged Jake to face Greg for a picture with her and the clown.

'Now before you go back to your seat, I've got a little job for you,' the clown said, kneeling down and whispering in Jake's ear.

* * *

Greg clicked the shutter on the camera as many times as he could, wanting to capture the moment for both Jake and Harriet. He lowered the camera and smiled, seeing how Harriet was looking at her son. Glancing to the left of them he saw Nick and Sara looking at him with expressions that could only mean they had worked out where the picture had been taken from. It also meant that they thought it was him that had sent it. Although he had been in on it, he wasn't the one to blame but he knew that they would think it was him. He had always been a bit of a joker. He covered the side of his face with one hand in a futile attempt to hide from them.

He looked back at Harriet and Jake who seemed to have been in the ring a while to say the clowns were only supposed to be singing Happy Birthday. Before he had a chance to take in what was going on, he saw something white and yellow heading towards him and in an instant his face was covered in something cold and sloppy. The whole of the big top howled with laughter as he wiped his eyes clear to see Jake standing there with a big cheeky grin on his face.

'You little monster,' he said as Harriet sat back down and Jake climbed onto her knee.

'Ha ha, the clown said I could do that to anyone I wanted,' Jake laughed.

'So you chose me?' Greg said, looking down at his t-shirt, which now had blobs of cream on along with the red stain from the drink spillage earlier. That shirt was going in the trash when he got home, he decided.

'You should feel honoured,' Harriet said as Jake sat in fits of laughter on her lap.

'I do, but I don't want either of you to feel left out,' Greg said with a devilish smile and flicked some cream pie at the pair of them.

'Hey!' Jake protested.

'Serves you right,' Greg said. 'Anyway I think the elephants are on next.'

Jake stopped complaining and focussed his attention back on the ringmaster who was introducing the next act. Greg looked at Harriet who moved towards him and whispered in his ear.

'Thank you for doing that for him,' she said. 'It was really sweet of you.'

'Well I'm a sweet guy,' Greg said, indicating the pie all over his face 'And if I wasn't before I certainly am now.'

Harriet laughed and offered him a tissue from her bag. He took it and began wiping his face as clean as he could.

'By the way, Nick and Sara worked out where the picture came from,' Greg said.

'They did?' Harriet looked sideways over at the couple. 'Shit.'

'It's all right, they think it was me that sent it,' Greg said.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' Harriet said, biting her bottom lip again.

'No problem I'm sure they'll get over it.' Greg said.

Harriet looked over at Nick and Sara again. Greg followed her gaze to see Nick pounding the fist of his right hand into the palm of his left as if to say 'I'm gonna get you Sanders.' Harriet looked at him and cringed, guiltily.

'Maybe they're not over it,' Greg said, pretending to look scared.

* * *

_A/N - as promised a bit of lighthearted banter and circus fun. I've never actually been to a circus so I don't know if they still have live animal shows and things but this is my story so i say they do! Moving on swiftly..._


	27. Kiss The Girl

_A/N - hmm whats going to happen in this chapterI wonder? Sorry I don't exactly have the best idea for chapter titles but nevermind._

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Seven – Kiss The Girl. **

'We'll have to make a hasty exit,' Harriet said as the final music began playing to signify the end of the show.

'O.k, now. Before everyone starts leaving,' Greg said, standing and looking over at Nick and Sara.

Harriet followed his line of sight and saw that the two CSI's had already gotten up out of their seats and were making their way around the ring as quickly as they could towards them. Harriet got up and took Jake by the hand. Even though Nick and Sara were not a real threat it was funny to be a little immature and avoid them. Plus she was enjoying feeling like things were back to normal with her and Greg. The friendly banter and joking was back.

'Quick!' Greg said suddenly, taking her by the hand and running in the opposite direction to the couple that were in hot pursuit.

Harriet ran with him, holding tightly onto Jake who began complaining that he had left his Nacho's behind and wanted to know what the hurry was.

'It's nothing sweetheart, we're just playing a joke on Nick and Sara from work,' Harriet explained as the three of them weaved in and out of the crowd, making it outside the big top.

'Oh, o.k, go faster!' Jake laughed, trying to keep up with them.

'I think we lost them,' Greg said, stopping and taking in deep breaths.

They were outside on the street now and had managed to get away from the rush of the people leaving the circus.

'Hey you two not so fast!' shouted a voice with a familiar Texan drawl.

Harriet and Greg both looked up to see that Nick and Sara were getting closer to the street but were being slowed down by the crowd.

'Come on,' said Greg, taking her hand again and dragging her down the street and turning around a corner.

'I don't want to run anymore, my legs hurt,' Jake whined, still trying to keep up whilst being half dragged by his mother.

* * *

Greg laughed as he dragged Harriet into an alleyway between two shops. It had been close for a moment there and he wasn't sure if they had completely lost them. He stood panting, trying to get his breath back. Harriet laughed and pulled her hand away. Greg reluctantly released his hold on it and sighed, watching as she attended to Jake who looked absolutely shattered from the impromptu sprint they had all just done. 

'Do you think they saw where we went?' Greg asked.

'Nah, I bet they're still stuck in that crowd,' Harriet laughed, giving Jake the rest of her drink.

'How long do we have to hide mummy?' Jake asked after taking a large gulp of the water.

'Only for a couple of minutes,' Greg answered him.

He glanced at the street at the end of the alleyway. People were passing by on their way home but he couldn't see any sign of Nick and Sara. Suddenly Harriet pushed him against the wall and huddled up close to him.

'Sorry,' she whispered. 'I thought I saw them.'

'It's o.k,' he replied, his heart thumping with the fright she had given him.

'Ha ha, you still have some pie on your face,' she said, gently brushing her hand against his cheek.

Greg couldn't hold back anymore. He had been in a situation like this with her more than once now and every time he had spent so much time thinking about whether or not to do it that he had missed his chance. So what if she went back to England with Rick after everything that had happened? He didn't care anymore; at least he could say he had tried.

He looked at her, her brown eyes staring back into his. She hadn't moved away from him and they were so close it would be stupid not to do anything. Greg slipped his hands onto her waist and moved his face close to hers. This was it, no going back now. He pressed his lips against hers and kissed her, closing his eyes so that he wouldn't have to see if she pulled away from him. He was pleasantly surprised to find she reciprocated and kissed him back. The moment that had taken so long in coming seemed to last for hardly anytime at all as Jake's giggling interrupted them.

* * *

Harriet pulled away from Greg and looked into his eyes. She felt giddy like she had just had her first ever kiss all over again. Just when she had been considering whether it was going to be her that had to make the move, Greg had stunned her by being the one to instigate the kiss. 

'Sorry,' he said but didn't take his eyes off her and he didn't look in the least bit sorry.

'Liar,' she said with a smile.

Jake was now howling with laughter at the pair of them. Normally she would have been embarrassed that her own son had witnessed that moment of adolescent style romance but she was so pleased that it had finally happened that she didn't care.

'What are you laughing at squirt?' she said, walking away from Greg and giving Jake a playful nudge.

'Nothing,' Jake laughed again.

'Come on let's go home,' she said, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder and messing up his hair with the other.

'Why does everyone keep doing that?' Jake asked, irritably smoothing his hair back down.

'Ooh four going on fourteen,' Harriet taunted him.

She walked out of the alley with him smiling to herself as she heard Greg finally move and follow them out. He must have been in a daze, she thought to herself, smiling but also wondering what was going to happen next.

* * *

_A/N - that was a long time coming wasn't it? I hope it was all romantic and cheesy enough for you all. If not, I went completely over the top with the next chapter. Bring your own sick bucket...! _

_P.S - had to get the Sara and Nick thing in there, I personally think they would make a much better couple than Greg and Sara in the show. I can't explain why, I just think it would work better. Anyway onto the next chapter whilstI get down off my soap box! _


	28. Ten Things I Like About You

**Chapter twenty-eight – Ten things I like about you (warning barf bucket may be required whilst reading this chapter due to extremely corny soppy banter!) **

Greg looked at the clock and he stirred the sauce in the pan. He would have to go to work soon and he really didn't want to. There had been no more kisses and no talk about the kiss between Harriet and himself and he wanted time for both things. They had gotten caught up with another surprise when they got home. There was a huge pile of birthday presents for Jake, which the little boy launched himself onto and subsequently began tearing at the paper along with a letter from Rick. It turned out he had gone back to England, leaving Jake with Harriet. That was why Jake had been acting strangely because his father had told him of his plans the night before and naturally it had been upsetting for him.

'I don't mind though, mummy, I like being here with you,' Jake had said after she had read part of the letter out loud that detailed what Rick was doing and what he had spoken to Jake about.

'Are you sure?' Harriet had asked.

'Yes,' Jake said. 'I think you're the best Mummy in the world.'

That had then reduced Harriet to tears, a mix of happiness and regret Greg had assumed.

'What does the rest of the letter say?' Greg had asked, seeing that it looked longer than what she had read out.

'Oh nothing, just some private stuff between Rick and me,' Harriet said.

'O.k.,' Greg had said, not wanting to push the matter but thinking it was weird.

Now it was getting on for six o'clock and Greg was making dinner for the three of them. Jake and Harriet were sitting on the carpet behind the sofa playing with some toy cars that Rick had bought. Jake was having a whale (or a dolphin –sorry) of a time making extremely loud swerving and braking noises.

Greg took the pan off the heat and poured the sauce onto the pasta he had cooked.

'Dinner's ready,' he called to them, putting the plates on the breakfast bar.

'Yes mum,' Harriet joked, looking up and smiling at him.

Greg laughed and rolled his eyes whilst Jake got up and ran to the sink and washed his hands. Harriet slowly followed and sat down on a stool.

'Wow, Rick really taught him his manners, huh?' Greg said, sitting down opposite her.

Harriet smiled, looking at Jake as he dried his hands on a towel and struggled to climb onto another bar stool. Greg picked him up under the arms and gave him a lift up.

'Thanks Greg,' Jake said and began to eat, slopping pasta sauce all over his t-shirt.

'Nice,' Harriet said, sarcastically. 'Jake, honey, try opening your mouth when you eat.'

Greg snorted at her comment and nearly lost the mouthful of pasta he had just taken. Harriet rolled her eyes and began to eat.

'You're both as bad as each other, honestly it's like having two kids to look after.' She said.

'Hey who cooked dinner?' Greg protested.

'Ooh sorry, wifey,' Harriet smirked and continued to eat her dinner.

When they had finished dinner, Harriet offered to wash up so Greg went and sat with Jake on the sofa, preparing to pick a film for them to watch when he remembered something.

'Hey Jakey, I forgot something,' Greg said.

'What?' Jake looked up at him, interested.

Greg looked underneath the sofa and pulled out a present and gave it to the little boy who jumped up and down with excitement.

'Ooh ooh, is it one of those miccosoaps I asked for?' Jake said.

'Open it and find out,' Greg smiled as Harriet came and sat beside them.

He was pleasantly surprised to see that she sat down on his side and put a hand on his back. Maybe she didn't have any regrets about the kiss after all and he had nothing to worry about. He put his hand on her knee and watched as Jake ripped the paper open and jumped up and down yelling 'miccosoap! Miccosoap! Miccosoap!'

* * *

'Jake calm down or you'll be sick,' Harriet warned him.

He sat down on the sofa and tried to open the box. It was only a small child sized microscope but it was quite heavy and he needed a bit of help from Greg.

'Wow it's huge!' Jake exclaimed as Greg pulled it out of the box.

'This is a cool one too,' Greg said. 'You can plug it into your mom's laptop and see it all on the screen.'

'Wow, can I do it now mum, can I, can I?' Jake asked, frantically.

Harriet smiled. 'Of course you can.' She said, getting up and taking Jake and his microscope to her room.

'O.k., do you think you've got the hang of it now?' Harriet asked.

Jake nodded, looking intently at the screen. 'I think so.'

'O.k., now I want you to stay here until I say you can come out unless you get desperate for the toilet. I need to talk to Greg.' She instructed him.

Jake nodded again and put a slide under the microscope as she had shown him.

Harriet smiled and left the room, quietly closing the door on him. He was so engrossed in the microscope and the computer that she didn't think he would bother them for a while. She walked back to the sofa and sat down next to Greg who sat up straight when he saw her as he had been slouching wearily, legs sprawled out in front of him.

'So,' she said, exhaling nervously.

'Yeah,' Greg replied, stealing a sideways glance at her and blushing.

'Aww you're like a school kid,' Harriet laughed.

'Well, I'm kind of embarrassed,' Greg said. 'About…you know.'

'Yeah, I know, but are we cool?' she asked.

Greg smiled. 'I'm cool if you're cool.'

'I'm very cool thank you.'

Harriet wasn't quite sure that they were cool enough so leaned closer to him and kissed him again. This time it wasn't as awkward as before but it was just as nice. It felt more natural. She pulled away after a few seconds and he smiled at her again, this time looking more relaxed.

'I didn't even know you liked me,' Greg said, quietly.

'I didn't to start with,' she said. 'I couldn't stand to be in the same room as you.'

'Likewise,' Greg laughed.

'Are we idiots or what?' Harriet laughed.

Greg nodded in agreement. They sat in silence for a minute or two until Harriet felt like things were getting awkward again.

'So what changed your mind?' she asked.

'I don't know, we became friends I guess. I didn't actually realise I felt anything more than that until Nick pointed it out after the funeral and I was going to ask you out then but-'

'But Jake showed up?' Harriet finished for him.

Greg nodded. 'So what about you, when did my charm finally win you over?'

'What charm?' Harriet joked.

Greg scowled at her sarcastically.

'The day Jake got left on our doorstep and we were sitting in the break room,' Harriet said.

Greg frowned 'What was so special about that?'

'You told me there was no way I would have ever been a bad mother,' Harriet said, feeling her eyes well up as remembered how great that had felt.

'I was right wasn't I? Jake thinks you're the best mom ever remember?'

'Yeah I know, I just wish someone would have told me before. No one did you know, it was like they didn't believe it themselves.'

* * *

Greg felt a little angry with that. Here she was, having spent god knows how long regretting her lack of motherhood and no one had tried to talk her around. He had hardly known her when he'd found out about Jake and he had had no doubt that she could do it.

'Well I believe in you, I always did,' he said, putting a hand on her face and looking into her eyes. 'I can't believe no one said anything.'

'If they hadn't I might never have come to Vegas and met you,' she pointed out.

'True, I'm very, very glad you did,' Greg said. 'But if it meant you wouldn't have to miss out on Jake's life, I would gladly sacrifice that for you.'

Oh man, that sounds so corny, he told himself. But he meant it, her happiness meant everything and while he would have been reluctant to surrender her to Rick, he would have gladly done it for Jake. Harriet put her hands on either side of his face and kissed him deeply. He kissed her back, glad that he had finally made a move.

'Thank you,' she said, moving back. 'That really means a lot to me but I can't dwell on the past and good things come with the bad as they say.'

'So this is definitely a good thing?' Greg asked, stroking her hair away from her eyes.

'Absolutely, I like this,' she said.

'That's good because I like you and I like your smile.' Greg said, feeling like a completely soppy goofball but not caring that much.

'Well I like your eyes,' Harriet said back in a way that made it sound like she was challenging him to better her compliment.

'I like the bacon sandwiches you make,' Greg said.

'I like your personality representing cereal theory you have.'

'I like that you have a thing for insects'

'Hey, you make it sound like a fetish!' Harriet smirked. 'I like that you're the only person who doesn't call me Hattie.'

'Well you're not an accessory,' Greg smiled. 'I like that you bite your lip when you're thinking of something.'

'I do that?' Harriet asked.

Greg nodded, and then waited for her to continue, wondering if she had more to say.

'O.k. I like,' she paused for a moment a bit her bottom lip.

'You're doing it now!' Greg pointed out.

Harriet laughed and stopped biting it. Then her face changed a little like something was bothering her.

'I like that you listened to me every time I had a problem.' She said.

'I like that you could tell there was something bothering me yesterday and that you didn't make me feel like an idiot for feeling like that.'

'I like that you helped me fall in love with my son,' Harriet said. 'I will never forget that above everything else.'

Greg smiled; they had been idiots not to see what they could have had before. They had been through a lot in a month and they had seen the best and the worst in each other. Maybe it was best that it had happened the way it did. It meant there was little else they didn't understand about each other.

'I don't really think I can top that one,' Greg said. 'So this will have to do.'

He took her face in his hands again and gave her a long emotive kiss. He felt so strongly towards her that he knew it would be a matter of time before he fell completely in love with her but it was too early to say so yet. Remembering that he had to go to work, as much as he would love to stay here and kiss her all night he finally pulled away.

'Sorry, I have to go to work,' he said, stroking her lips with his thumb.

'No you don't,' Harriet said with a smile.

'Yeah I do,' Greg said. 'We're not all slackers like you.'

'Hey!' Harriet hit him on the arm. 'I spoke to Grissom, told him you needed a night off because you were under a lot of strain still and he agreed.'

'He agreed to being short a lab tech and a CSI?' Greg said, not believing his boss would be so accommodating.

'When he realised you were still hurting about the Richardson case he said it was fine.'

'I'm not so upset anymore though, kind of feel like a fake,' Greg said, relieved that he didn't have to go to work.

'It's only one night, it's not a big deal,' Harriet said.

'You just get more and more surprising,' Greg said, giving her another kiss.

* * *

Harriet was enjoying this new element to their friendship. She could tell that Greg genuinely cared about her and for the first time in months, maybe even years she felt like she was safe and didn't have to worry about anything. As he kissed her, she wished she could stay there with him forever, just him and her but then her mobile phone went off, interrupting their little moment of passion.

'Oh great,' she said, moving her face away from Greg and taking her phone out of her pocket.

She smiled to herself as he continued to place small kisses on the side of her face. She shrugged her shoulders when he tried to kiss her neck.

'Don't do that it tickles,' she laughed, opening up her phone.

'Sorry who's texting you? Your boyfriend on the side?' Greg asked, jokingly.

'Ergh, are you two kissing again?' a child's familiar voice piped up.

Harriet looked up from her phone as the message was loading to smile at Jake who had emerged from her bedroom. He was twitching around and hopping from foot to foot. She was about to speak to him when she glanced at her phone again. There, as bold as day was a photograph of her and Greg kissing in the alley outside the circus with the words 'busted right back at ya!' flashing above it.

'Oh no,' she said, cringing.

'What is it?' Greg asked, peering over her shoulder.

She held it up so it he could see. 'Nick and Sara getting their revenge.'

'Oh man, I didn't even know they were there,' he said. 'Wait a minute, what's that?'

Greg pointed to a small blurred figure standing to the side of them in the photograph. It was Jake and he was looking directly at the camera. Harriet and Greg simultaneously looked up at Jake who was still standing in the living room hopping skittishly from foot to foot.

'You knew they took a picture?' Harriet asked, not believing how well a four year old could keep a secret.

Jake smiled, cheekily. 'That's why I was laughing.'

'You little traitor!' Greg said, getting up as if to chase the boy round the room.

'No! I really need a wee,' Jake said, pathetically.

Harriet laughed and took Greg's hand. 'Leave him, let him use the toilet. It just means he can't make any more complaints about us kissing,' she said, giving Jake a knowing stare.

'Yes mummy,' Jake said and dashed into Greg's room to use the bathroom.

She laughed to herself and then looked at Greg. He grinned back and raised his eyebrows.

'So does that mean I get to do it as often as I like?' he asked, pulling her up by the hand so that she was standing close to him.

Harriet slid her arms around his neck and smiled at him. He seemed to take that as his cue and proceeded to kiss her.

* * *

_A/N - realise this one was super super cheesy but I did warn you more than once so no sueing me please and thank you! I tried to lighten it up a bit at the end with Sara and Nick getting their own back. Last chapter coming right up..._


	29. Closing The Lid

_A/N - here we go, last chapter just to tie up the loose ends._

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Nine – Closing the lid. **

Greg was busy pouring himself a coffee in the break room whilst humming some obscure rock tune to himself that he couldn't quite name but equally couldn't get out of his head. He started to think about Harriet. Truth be told, he was thinking about her constantly. He had only paused from his daydreaming to pour himself the coffee and ponder the name of the melody that wouldn't stop bugging him. But then she was back, at the front of his mind. His night off couldn't have fallen at a more convenient time and they had spent most of it talking about everything, really getting to know each other. He was now very confident that he could name her favourite film and that she didn't have any more little surprises up her sleeve.

As he replaced the pot in the coffee machine, he felt some hands on his waist and someone place a kiss on the back of his neck. He straightened up and smiled to himself.

'How many times do I have to tell you Sara, I'm not interested,' he quipped, grinning broadly.

'That's reassuring seeing as I'm not Sara and I think Nick would have something to say about it if you were,' Harriet said.

Greg turned around and after doing a quick scan of the room to make sure no one was around, or could see, her gave her a kiss. She pulled away, smiling, and took his coffee from him.

'Thank you, how did you know I was thirsty?' she asked, taking a seat on the sofa.

Greg frowned and then turned back to pour himself another coffee. Warrick and Catherine came in, preparing for the team briefing before the shift would start properly. Warrick looked slightly hung over and Catherine looked stressed, a case file under her arm.

'Thanks Greg, do you mind?' she asked, taking his second attempt at getting a caffeine fix from him.

Greg sighed and looked to Warrick, he knew he was going to ask for a mug too. He lifted his eyebrows questioningly and Warrick nodded.

'Thanks, dude,' he said as Greg filled a third mug and handed it to him.

Maybe I can finally get my own in peace now, Greg thought, looking across at Harriet who smiled over the top of her mug. He knew she was finding this very humorous or she could be smiling because Warrick and Catherine had no knowledge of their newly blossoming relationship. He gave her a crafty wink and then poured himself a new drink. Fourth time lucky, he thought to himself and then decided he had spoken too soon as Grissom came shuffling into the break room and took the coffee from him without a word. Greg threw his hands up in exasperation and looked at Harriet who grinned at him like a Cheshire cat.

'Should I ask you who's bed you woke up in this morning?' Sara asked her as she and Nick strolled confidently into the break room.

Greg suppressed a laugh as he saw Harriet choke on her drink. They hadn't discussed whether they would tell anyone else at work yet but, as Nick and Sara already knew, it was only going to be a matter of time.

'Don't ask her,' Nick said, a sly grin creeping across his face. 'Ask Greg instead.'

Greg coughed awkwardly and tried to avoid eye contact with the pair. Unfortunately he ended up looking at Grissom who looked back at him nonplussed. Greg realised he must have been looking like he was asking for help with the teasing.

'What's going on?' Grissom asked, putting his paperwork down.

'Nothing,' Harriet said. 'Nothing at all. You're looking rather dashing today by the way boss.'

'Oh, that is weak,' Nick said.

'Yeah, brown nosing the boss is never a good thing,' Greg said, looking at her with a smirk.

'Will someone please explain to me what is going on?' Grissom asked.

'Why don't you ask Sanders?' Sara said, looking at Greg and grinning from ear to ear.

Greg looked desperately at Harriet for help. She shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'might as well.' He took a deep breath and realised he couldn't find the words to explain to his supervisor that he had got it together with the lab tech.

'Oh for crying out loud,' Sara said. 'Ask them how the circus was yesterday.'

'How was the circus?' Warrick asked. He and Catherine looked rather interested in this banter that was suddenly going on.

'See for yourself,' Nick said, opening his phone and passing it to Catherine.

She looked at it open-mouthed for a second and then looked up at Greg with a smile.

'Ooh Greg, you stud,' she said and passed the phone to Warrick who let out a mixture of a cheer and a laugh.

'Damn good work Nicky,' said.

Grissom slammed his hands down on the table.

'I don't want to make you lot think that the suspense is killing me or anything but can we get on with this so we can get to doing some proper work?' he asked almost sulkily.

'Greg and Harriet are shall we say…' Nick began.

'A little more than friends,' Sara finished for him looking pleased with herself at being the one who owned this piece of gossip.

Grissom rolled his eyes and looked down at the assignment slips he had in his hands, ready to give to his team. He was reading them over. Hadn't reacted to this information at all. Greg smiled as he saw Sara's face fall and she looked a little annoyed.

'Well?' she said.

'Well what?' Grissom asked.

Sara sighed frustratedly. Grissom looked at Harriet and then at Greg.

'Oh those two?' He asked. 'It's about time, those two have been eyeing each other up since the day they met.'

He looked back down at his paperwork.

'We have not!' Greg and Harriet both exclaimed at the same time.'

'Whatever you say, I just saw it before you did that's all. Greg close your mouth and sit down before you swallow an innocent fly,' Grissom ordered.

Greg quickly scuttled over to the sofa and sat down next to Harriet, trying to ignore the soppy looks Catherine was giving them. Grissom went through the evenings cases, handing assignment slips to the CSI's. The room was silent as this went on. Greg was a little embarrassed that Grissom had seen chemistry between Harriet and himself before they had even become friends. He was also a little amused at how annoyed Harriet looked about it.

'Harriet, you never answered Sara's question. Who's bed did you wake up in this morning?' Grissom asked.

Greg snorted as Harriet choked on her coffee for the second time in ten minutes. They had slept in Greg's room last night but not in the way everyone else was thinking. They hadn't even discussed anything like that yet. Although Greg knew they weren't teenagers and it wasn't a big deal, neither of them were new to that, they had just been more interested in talking and the sharing of the bed had been completely innocent especially given that Jake had joined them after having a nightmare. He looked at Harriet; she had gone bright red and looked like she was incredibly embarrassed.

'Firstly, Grissom, that's extremely inappropriate and secondly I don't think Sara should be asking those kind of questions unless she is prepared to answer them herself.' Greg said, trying to save Harriet any further embarrassment.

He looked at Sara and Nick and smirked at them. Their faces were a picture. They looked like they had been enjoying having one over on Greg and Harriet so much that they had forgotten about their own secret.

'No way,' Warrick said, the proverbial penny had obviously dropped, having known his friends for so long the ability to read their expressions must have been like a sixth sense for him.

'What? Sara and Nick?' Catherine asked in disbelief.

'Now that one I didn't pick up on,' Grissom said, standing up to leave the room.

'Sara and Nick have been working together a lot longer than us and you didn't pick up on that?' Harriet asked, sounding like she wasn't convinced.

'No, mind you I was spending a lot of time, wondering when you two were going to stop biting each other's heads off enough to see what was in front of your eyes,' Grissom said. 'Why do you think I suggested the living arrangements?'

Greg's jaw dropped. He was seeing a very new side to his boss. He didn't have him down as much of a people person and certainly not a romantic. He didn't know whether to be impressed or disturbed. He watched as Grissom looked at Harriet and quickly exited the room, taking his cue from Harriet's stony glare.

'Well, that's enough excitement for me for one day,' Catherine said, standing. 'Let's get this show on the road. Greg you're with me,' she said.

Greg sighed contentedly to himself and got up off the sofa. Harriet did the same and the three of them walked down the corridor. As they got to Harriet's lab and were about to go their separate ways, Greg put a hand on her waist and pulled her to him placing a long kiss on her lips.

'Seeya later,' he said, coyly.

'Oh purr-lease,' Catherine groaned, taking his arm and dragging him away from her.

* * *

Harriet smiled to herself as she sat down in her chair and switched on the CD Player that had inhabited her lab since day one. She spun around happily on the chair and looked at Monty who was standing in his tank, not moving. To the untrained eye he would have looked dead but she knew he was just sleeping. 

'Ah Monty, I wonder if he'll ever let me take you home, eh?' she said, smiling and began to swivel around on her chair again.

* * *

'I won't be a minute Cat, I just have to do something,' Greg said, taking a detour towards the men's locker room. 

'How many more times must I ask you not to call me that? I am not a feline,' Catherine muttered scoldingly as she continued on her way to the parking lot almost as if she herself felt that her request would always be in vain and that Greg would never ceasethe irritating usage of a nickname she had never asked for.

Greg smiled to himself and wandered down to his locker. He paused for a moment before taking out his key and opening it up. The smiled faded from his face and he sighed as he looked at what he had come for. Gingerly, he lifted his hand to the small shelf at the top of his locker and took out the small book.

His eyes stung with distant tears as he thought back to the events of the past few weeks. To say it had been a roller coaster of a time would be an understatement but as he couldn't conjure up any other cliché free analogy, that one would have to do.

* * *

Harriet stopped mid-swivel and looked at the box that was still in the corner of her lab. The lid lay beside it. Some of the evidence was missing out of the box as Nick had needed it for Jake's kidnapping case but the file with all the details of her mother's death and the case she never solved were still in there. She sighed and picked up the lid, thinking back to the letter Rick had left her yesterday. 

_Leaving Jake with you, is one of the hardest things I have ever done but he needs his mother as much as you need your son and I know you can take care of him. I will visit as often as I can, I have already explained this to Jake and I think he understood._

_I'm sorry to leave without saying goodbye properly but I was afraid you wouldn't take the opportunity I know you have with Greg if I was still hanging around. Greg seems like a great guy and I want the both of you to be happy. I will always have a special place for you in my heart (yeah, I know, that's corny) you have given me the most amazing son I could ever wish for and I know that soon you will be back to that happy, girl genius Imet four and a half years ago._

Harriet smiled as she remembered what it had been like when she had Rick had met. The attraction had been mutual and almost instantaneous, nothing like her and Greg. She was glad Rick had said something the other night. If he hadn't, she might never have plucked up the courage to finally let Greg in. Rick was probably right, maybe she needed to move on but it seemed like she had spent so much time mulling it all over that she would never be able to let go.

* * *

Greg smiled to himself as he sat on the bench in the locker room. All he could hear was the distant dripping of one of the taps that obviously needed the washer replacing. Not that he was enough of a DIY guy to know anything about that. He slowly turned the pages of the book, taking in the words and the brightly coloured pictures. It still filled him with sadness when he thought of the reason why he had this book in his possession but something in the way Harriet had looked at him today had made him realise something. She made him feel strong again. He still couldn't believe how much he had hated her when they first met; it was like they were different people but still the same. He knew that didn't make any sense; scientist or no scientist. 

Greg sighed and stood up again, closing the book. He slammed his locker door shut and wandered back down to the break room, realising that he didn't have much time before Catherine would start calling his phone in an attempt to get him to move his ass. Jake was laid on the break room sofa; he seemed to be asleep. Harriet had felt uncomfortable finding another babysitter so soon and Emily was reluctant to take up the job again, not that he blamed her. Greg crouched down by the side of the sofa and smiled at the little boy. He placed the book next to him and exhaled happily.

'Take good care of it little guy,' he said and left the break room feeling like a great weight had finally lifted from his shoulders. Another clichéd analogy but he didn't care. It was a good analogy.

* * *

Harriet flicked through the case file, her stomach still turning at the photographs of her mother. This wasn't the way to remember her. But it was so hard not to think about it. The case was solved, maybe she hadn't done it but the case was solved. She stopped flicking when she came across a slip of paper in place of Jenkins DNA results from the murder. 

'Information removed for Samuels kidnapping case file, CSI Sanders.'

Harriet didn't know whether to laugh or cry as it hit her that Greg Sanders, the guy she couldn't abide when she first entered the Las Vegas crime lab, had solved her mother's murder. The irony was…well…ironic. Greg was the best thing that had happened for a very long time. She closed the file and threw it back into the box as the end of Rick's letter resonated in her mind.

_Just promise me you will move on. It's time that you started thinking about all the things you have and all the things you have achieved and have yet to achieve instead of dwelling on what you're missing and what you haven't done._

_Remember, you can't solve them all._

Harriet smiled to herself. She had Jake. She had Greg. She finally felt like someone who belonged instead of an infamous university statistic or a workaholic. Harriet looked at the box in front of her and smiled, sadly. She was a mother now, had her own child to think about.

'Rest in peace, mum' she said and replaced the lid on the box.

THE END

* * *

_Final A/N - there you go, my first fully completed CSI fic. I hope you enjoyed it. You must have if you got this far. I did start on a sequel to this but decided it was pointless and quit. _

_I did startanother Greg fic, set at Christmas time but Icouldn't decide what to do with it and I ended up writing a completely different really short random Greg fic set at Christmas with the ever so original title of 'Christams Shopping' Its posted on here so check it out. Please feel free to review this story I know in previous chapters I said I wasn't looking for reviews (mainly because I am scared that they will be bad ones) but please review anyway if you like. I have an idea for a third story but I'm not going to start it until I know how well this one has gone. _

_Thankyou and good night/day/evening/whatever time of day you are reading this! _


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